veggiegobbler

Confessions of a Lazy Gardener

2012-02-12T12:14:00.000+11:00

The other day I caught myself cropping out the weeds in a photo for this blog. I'm always doing stuff like that - taking close ups, re-shooting photos from another angle, choosing the pictures that look the best - the ones that make my garden look good and hide the messes. And I feel that I ought to confess. I am a lazy gardener. I have loads and loads of weeds hanging about. I have couch grass crawling up my side fence. I have half-started garden projects hanging about just waiting for the weather to turn bad so I'll have a real excuse not to do them. I have been known to finally get started on a garden project just 'cos I want to blog about it. Sometimes when my friends visit they exclaim that my garden looks much better in my blog. Oh yeah, I am a naughty, sneaky blogger.

Part of the reason I started this blog was for motivational purposes. I had grown some veggies for the first time and was very pleased with myself. But I didn't know what to do with the beetroot I'd managed so let them grow and grow and wasted them and felt very guilty in the process.

So, for your entertainment, to ease my conscience and as a motivational exercise, I thought I might take a bunch of pictures of my laziness. Hopefully in my next post you will see how industrious I have been and I can show you all some after shots. Or I'll give the macro setting on my camera a workout and you'll be so bamboozled by my colourful close-ups that you'll forget all about this post.

Weeds & Junk in the Herb Garden

See all those weeds. And see those kitchen implements lying on the ground? I had made a kinda quirky hanging sculptury thing against the fence with those old saucepans and mixers and things. I proudly blogged about it here. But Monkey Man objected to the clanging noise they made on a windy night and he silenced them by tying them up. And in my snippiness I ripped them down (yes, aside from laziness I have other faults - a bit of a temper). And that is where they have stayed in a discarded heap for several months now.

Revived Passionfruit from Suckers

A few months ago I made mention of my dying passionfruit vine. Kind bloggers diplomatically suggested it ought to be ripped out. And I did in all honesty intend to dig it up and make better use of that valuable, sunny, spot. It's just that it hasn't happened yet. Instead the vine has grown suckers everywhere and has sprouted from under the graft spots. And it's all looking rather leafy and lush. If I didn't know better I'd have thought my magic, inactive, green thumb had revived it. But those re-shoots won't ever grow me passionfruit and it's only looking green 'cos I've been lazy. And I could have planted something else in there - or at least given it a green manure crop to prepare for something else in the meantime.

The De-Grassing Project

I plan to de-grass my garden. In spring I started on the project rather enthusiastically. I dug a path all 'round the plum tree and made more garden beds and sat down in the hammock to contemplate just what material I would use on the garden paths. And that's where I stopped. Most days I have a swing in the hammock with a cup of tea in hand and contemplate again just what to use instead of grass in the garden. And meanwhile the ~~grass~~ weeds grow taller on my intended paths.

Death in Planter Boxes

I have dead plants in pots decorating the garden everywhere. I've managed to kill everything on the ladder this summer. See that tomato plant to the right. It's a self-seeder. I've done nothing to help it along. I thought at first that bamboo stake might provide some support but it fell down in a wind and I never propped it back up. Instead I'm hoping that it'll grow itself up the ladder and I'll get tomatoes without even trying. That's the kinda gardener I am - lazy but optimistic.

More Weeds Suffocating the Flowers

This spot in front of the wood shed has always suffered from weeds. But they're easy to pull out 'cos there's lots of mulch under there. Not that you'd notice at the moment. One day I had a spark of inspiration and I shook out some calendulas that had gone to seed all over the spot. And wouldn't you know it, success. Bunches of flowers sprouted which pleased me immensely. No digging, watering or tending. My sort of gardening. But since then I haven't done any weeding and the flowers are being smothered by the weeds and someone has dropped bits of wood on the ground in the wrong spot so it really is a mess.

Junk Pile

Last week I showed you a pic of the old washer I mosaiced. What I carefully obscured from your gaze was this pile of junk sitting nearby. These are weeds that I pulled up a long time ago (I can assure you they've been there a long while because it's been a long while since I've done a proper weed). I intended to be rid of those weeds and to store those weed-containing vessels in the shed. I also thought I might drill some holes in that kiddies wheelbarrow and use it to house some flowers or veggies. But instead I have a junk pile. And some of the weeds that ought to have died in a hot weed pile are thriving. Namely that rotten Wandering Dew which apparently causes itches in dogs and is very difficult to be rid of. Especially if you are an organic gardener and are relying on the method of pulling up the weeds yourself. And especially if you have a lazy bone which prevents you from doing a proper, regular weed to be properly rid of it.

Well I could post a few more lazy photos but I think you get the picture. I must say it feels good to confess. Much better than when I was a child at a Catholic Primary School and was forced once a term to confess my sins to the parish priest. I got myself in a terrible pickle trying to think of sins to confess so I made a couple up just to satisfy everyone.

Seventeen Recycled Garden Things

2012-02-05T08:46:00.001+11:00

Thought for a bit of fun I'd post some recycled things I'm using in the garden today.

1. Drawer Planter Boxes

These drawers were destined for the hard rubbish but now they're housing some flowers underneath my clothes line.

2. Clothes Airer Vine Support

Not sure that I'll have any success with my pumpkins this year again. I think I planted them in the wrong spot - not enough sun. They haven't grown much so it's probably too late in the season. But they have started to climb up the corrugated iron fence with a bit of assistance from my old clothes airer.

3. Old Tin Drum Planters

And here's another. And beside it...

4. Tree Stump Bench Seats

Now don't ask me what the flowers are 'cos I confess to being not so interested in flowers unless they are particularly beneficial to the veggies or in this case quite pretty. Beside the flowers is a bench seat. I've got a few of these about the place. I don't know where the tree stump came from or the planks of wood I've propped on top. I just found them in Monkey Man's timber stash.

5. Chicken Coop

Built by Monkey Man using recycled materials. The roof was give to us by a friend leftover from a kids' cubby house. You can't see it in the picture but the nesting area is an old drawer that's been covered in. We did have to buy some hinges and extra chicken wire.

6. Laundry Trough Planter

You might remember this post when I was getting myself in a frizz about the peeling lead paint from this old laundry trough. Well I scraped most of it off and painted over it and it now houses some flowers in front of the chook shed.

7. Kids' Security Fence Chook Run

Aaaah it seems aeons ago now but once we had to baby-proof the house. I remember getting quite anxious about all the dangers lurking about. Table corners got plastic covers, bookshelves were screwed into the wall, breakables packed away. Of course, the real dangers came from sleep-deprived parents. We dropped Eldest Monkey boy once. Monkey Man passed him to me. I thought he had him, he thought I did and poor little monkey got dropped splat to the ground. Shudder.

Anyway, once we got to the crawling stage I thought it necessary to purchase an overpriced security fence to keep little fingers out of the kitchen. Luckily, it has later proved very handy in the garden. It is movable and has a gate and makes a perfect fence for the chicken run.

8. Old Washer Water Feature

This one's my favourite. It's an old washing machine that was in the laundry when Monkey Man bought the house (along with the cement troughs I've made into planters). I mosaiced it over winter, filled it with water and popped in some water plants. Pretty cool huh?

9. Teapot Planter

Now I have to confess that this teapot has been hanging in my garden for about a year now without a plant. And I cheated today by quickly potting up some baby tears in it just to impress you! Unfortunately, now that I'm looking at the photo I see that the plant is very unimpressive and I needn't have bothered.

10. Door Frame Veggie Patch Border

It's hard to see amidst the foliage but this I think was once our back screen door. I found it on one of Monkey Man's junk piles of course. Now it marks the border between one veggie patch and the next and I use it to grow veggies up. At the moment it's helping along the tomatoes. I've attached a few interesting bits to it too - a mobile and ribbon with mirrors and a little lantern that's lost it's glass.

11. Ladder Plant Shelf

I had imagined a ladder bursting with colour and herbs and such but I'm afraid this one's been a bit of a failure so far. The steps are not very wide so it needs small pots which I've managed to dry out. And over summer it's shaded by the fig tree so everything seems to be dying. I tried to grow some cucumber up it but no luck so far. Maybe in a few months I'll manage to make it look a bit better.

12. Pallet Chook Fence

A couple of pallets were dumped outside our back fence after some building was done by the neighbours. For a couple of years I covered them with a board and made a stage for the monkeys' backyard concerts. Now they're serving as a fence to stop the chooks escaping to the veggie patch.

13. CD Rack Garden Art

A few years ago I used a mini disk recorder in my drama class and at the end a parent came up to me like it was a museum piece and laughed. Well I sure did feel uncool! (See I am so uncool I still use the word "uncool"). Nowadays, I have progressed to the digital world. But some of you may be able to cast your minds back to the olden days when we had CDs. This was a rack for storing the CDs in. Only it is big and a bit creepy and my monkeys were frightened of it so I decided to put it in the garden for a bit of added interest. And I think he will scare away the birds - a modern-ish scarecrow.

14. Screen Door Fence

Yep, another one. But this door was out the front. I've covered it with chicken wire and it is serving as a gate for Wokee the puppy's outdoor run. And as you can see from the picture I still haven't moved Monkey Man's junk pile or planted anything down there.

15. Dead Tree Arbour

I had been looking around for an arbour for this spot in the garden. But everything I saw was a bit twee. Then a tree on our nature strip died and Monkey Man suggested these branches. I was hoping it would be like a gateway from one section of the garden to the next but it doesn't quite work. Yet. I have tried to grow things up it but with no success. I think there are a lot of snails or earwigs or something around there. But I haven't given up.

16. Bamboo Teepees

Someone I read recently blogged about bamboo and how terrific and sustainable and lovely it is. I tried in vain to find the post and who it was so apologies but I just can't remember where I read it. Anyway, they had some lovely pics of bamboo being used for all sorts of wonderful things. And I was tempted to comment, but I would have just been spoiling the lovely post. Because I hate bamboo. Only because we had a nasty big patch of it down our back fence. The non-clumping variety that spreads and spreads until one day you have nothing but a big bamboo jungle in your yard and you lose your children in it. So I set to work chopping it out to make way for the chook shed. And it took all of my summer holidays and was bloody hard work for a wimp like me. And then I realised that chopping it down would not do much good because it just kept sprouting up from the cut stumps. So I set Monkey Man to work digging it out. Phew. He wasn't at all impressed with that job. You can see a bit of what was involved here.

Anyway, the good thing is that now we have a lifetime supply of bamboo stakes for the garden. And so do my friends and neighbours.

17. Nappy Dishcloths

OK, they're not strictly speaking garden things but they were hanging on the line when I was photographing. And I like the picture so indulge me. Old nappies are very useful. I've chopped most of mine up and use them as kitchen dishclothes.

I'd love to know what things you've recycled in your garden.

On Pantries and Squabbles in Ikea

2012-02-02T10:22:00.003+11:00

We lashed out and got a pantry last week. Our previous pantry was bought second-hand from the Trading Post a few days before I gave birth to Eldest Monkey Boy. It was the first and only kitchen I said I wanted to see. Needless to say I wasn't in a state to care about kitchen choices. I just wanted a kitchen before the baby was born. In fact I wanted the black plastic that was making do as the back wall and protecting our house from the elements and thieves and mice to disappear and be filled with a proper wall. And I wanted a sink where I could wash dishes - not the trough in the bathroom. And a few other things. But they weren't to be for quite a while post baby. And all that time went by in a sleep-deprived, anxiety-filled, baby-love whirlwind anyway. I didn't care much that I had to stomp my foot while breastfeeding to scare the mice away from my room. I was too exhausted.

I've never been much happy with the kitchen we hastily assembled. It is certainly ugly (which I can live with) and the doors have started drooping (which I will put up with too) but it was the pantry that finally cracked me these holidays. It had one door that opened the wrong way and scraped on the floor and the other side was completely doorless. So everyone could see my messy contents inside.

Naturally, once we made the decision to get a new one I chose something completely out of keeping with everything else in our kitchen. It is big and glossy and red and has pull out drawers with slam proof doors and a couple of wire baskets and I can't stop oohing and aahing over it. And Littlest Monkey Boy can't stop admiring himself in the reflective surface and practising his creative dance moves in front of it.

We purchased the pantry at that barn we love and hate in equal measures - Ikea. Whenever we are on our way to visit Ikea I warn Monkey Man that we will have a fight. And we do. When I was single I hated to visit Ikea because I was blinded by the happy couples hand in hand furnishing their love nests. And I was filled with envy at everyone else who certainly had a much happier life than poor, lonely, single old me! I didn't notice them bickering and hissing at each other and their measuring tapes after they'd followed the yellow line to the next floor.

The trick with Ikea I've realised is to know what you're getting beforehand and to head straight for it. Then follow the yellow arrows directly to the loading spot. Do not get side-tracked by all the other stuff. 'Cos you could get lost and spend hours in there and you will surely have a fight with your partner. And if you don't have it by the time you get to the lighting department (that's where we had ours this time) you will surely have it as you attempt to find and heave the packages onto the trolley and then queue for fifteen minutes to pay. Ikea should offer couples counselling along with their delivery service. Actually not just couples-counselling, also counselling for singles who are traumatised by all the in-your-face seemingly happy couples.

Anyway, it is a wee bit glossy and red compared to everything else but we might just be able to get away with the juxtaposition when Monkey Man has finished making a kitchen bench from re-cycled backyard timber. It took us three days to put together and the handles have been screwed on wonky, but I am sure that my cooking life is going to be heavenly from henceforth. Now I can see just how many lentils I have. But only when I open the door.

Yay Yippee-de-Yahooooo!

2012-01-29T09:52:00.000+11:00

Last night we were having dinner outside in the garden when I spied something that made me jump and run. It was AN ACTUAL AVOCADO! On closer inspection I discovered that our avocado tree was housing not one but THREE ACTUAL AVOCADOS.

Please excuse my shrieking but you cannot imagine how excited I am. You see this avocado tree must be over twenty years old. And in the eighteen years that Monkey Man has lived here it has never shown any inclination whatsoever to bear fruit. In fact after that devastating Black Saturday bushfire weekend when we had several stinking hot days reaching temperatures of 46ºC, the tree shrivelled and I very nearly chopped it down. But it survived after I removed the dead limbs and I consoled myself that it was a lovely shade tree even if it didn't produce fruit. BUT NOW IT DOES! Naturally I upset the neighbourhood with my demented squawking and jumping about in excitement. If I had been able I would have done a cartwheel. Or several.

When I first moved in I did a lot of research on avocados in the hope that I could work some magic on the tree. I contemplated getting another one to help with pollination but they grow so big. I also considered getting out a paintbrush and doing a bit of pollination myself. You see avocados, I understand, are rather tricky trees with A and B flowers that open after each other and change from male to female later in the day. It was all a bit bamboozling for me. And I didn't really hold out any hope. But you can rest assured that this year I'll be painting my flowers morning and afternoon. I have already done some googling on pollinating. This site looked simple enough for me to understand.

Now I am sure there's a lesson here about having faith, or patience being a virtue, or reaping what you sow... or something like that. But I'll leave the lessons for you to ponder 'cos I am too busy smiling and shrieking and making repeated visits to the tree.

How I Ought to Be Doing Things

2012-01-27T09:41:00.001+11:00

Yesterday we visited the children's garden at Melbourne's Botanical Gardens. It's been ages since we've been and I've forgotten how wonderful it is. While the kids splashed around in the water fountains and streams, I wandered about the veggie patch. I realised of course that I'm no-where near getting it right in my own garden. I need to plant loads more. And why do they put that information about how close you should plant your veggies on the packets. Surely it's wrong? I'd need a farm with loads more space and a ruler if I was to follow their directions. And I'd hardly grow anything. I've started to squish things up much closer than they recommend but now I see that it's possible to successfully do even closer squishes.

I really like these bamboo structures they've made to grow pumpkins and beans up at the Gardens.

I've often admired people who grow artichokes. I once tried to prepare one for a meal and it was such a drama I vowed never to do it again. That was twenty years ago and I have stuck to my promise. I've heard of people popping them in their gardens just for the flowers which I secretly thought was a bit bonkers. Until I saw this yesterday...

I'm a convert. I'll definitely be organising some artichokes for my garden this year. And some purple basil which looks great and smells just like the real stuff. Fancy that! I reckon I'd be able to freak the monkeys out with a lovely purple pesto too.

Another thing I realised I ought to do is grow more parsley. Much, much more.

And all those telly and cookbook chefs who snootily tell you that the flat leaf parsley variety is vastly superior are wrong. I much prefer the curly stuff. It looks better, chops better and I can easily distinguish it from the weeds as opposed to that other flat stuff. Maybe my palate isn't too good but I really can't tell the difference in flavour either. So I'll be aiming for massive curly parsley plantings this year too.

There was also a wee asparagus plot at the Gardens. Some of you may know I've been hankering for asparagus and haven't managed to find a spot that I think will be big enough. But they had only a small patch set aside for asparagus here. Mind you I'm not sure how many mouths they are planning on feeding. So I'm thinking I've found the spot in my garden for asparagus, but I've got a few months to continue my ponderings yet.

I quite like the stuff they've got on the paths there. I could walk on that with bare feet and it'd keep the weeds down. I haven't managed to completely de-grass our place since I last posted about it and am still contemplating what I'll use.

Lastly, could someone please tell me what this flower is? It looks beautiful and was attracting lots of bees.

Only a few more days of school holidays left. I'll certainly miss the lazy days and excursions and fun with the monkeys. I never understand people who hang out for the return to school and back to routine. Don't get me wrong, I won't miss the sooking on the trampoline after one of their wrestling matches or circus shows goes askew or the sniping over who gets to use the last clone trooper lego bit. But I do so love summer holidays.

Amaranth My Newest Number One

2012-01-19T09:59:00.002+11:00

Amaranth

Amaranth has overtaken silverbeet to become my current favourite garden veggie.

Most of my amaranth was gobbled by snails in the early days as seedlings along with my sunflowers, bergamot and other stuff in this patch. But these two plants survived and they are more than enough for us. They look beautiful don't you think?

Apparently, you're supposed to eat the leaves before the plant flowers. But I didn't read that until I had flowers and I don't think it matters. I've been chopping off some of the smaller leaves when I need to and they taste good. Not raw mind you - you'll be wanting to cook them. And chop out the stems.

If you haven't tried amaranth before it's kind of like spinach but stronger and chewier and it keeps its shape when cooked. I've been popping a few leaves into my usual breakfast: toast, an egg, tomatoes, mushrooms a bit of basil from the garden (yippee) and amaranth. Tonight's fare is pizza with amaranth leaves. I'll be doing it with bocconcini cheese and tomato and basil. Yummy.

Now I wanted to get NutriNic my sister the nutritionist to comment for me about the nutritional value of amaranth but she is too busy at the moment. So I had to rely on the Great Google. Apparently amaranth is high in protein and very nutritious. The leaves are similar to spinach and silverbeet but more nutritious. According to this source, the leaves have three times more calcium and three times more vitamin B3 than spinach.

The seed is apparently very nutritious and high in protein too. But it sounds like a bit of a process to separate the seed from the outer shell so maybe I'll just be lazy and let them drop about for another crop later on.

Have you cooked or grown amaranth? Got any tips or recipe ideas?

Re-using and Planning and Being a Worry-Wart

2012-01-17T10:22:00.001+11:00

This highly attractive spot is the down the side of our house. Yep, some of our backyard is a tip. Monkey Man loves to keep everything - timber, bricks, old window frames and doors, pipes, floorboards, tyres, an old high chair... you'll find it all dumped in various corners of our backyard. Apart from being bloody eyesores, these tip spots also make me jumpy and cranky 'cos they are providing a lovely home for lots of creepy crawlies - red back spiders and huntsmen and mice and cockroaches. Although I must admit I have grown to appreciate Monkey Man's hoarding nature because it does come in handy at times. He's whipped up (well actually laboured and strained and swore for days) a chook house, stands for water tanks, a wood shed and various other handy things about the home with stuff from our rubble piles.

In fact in the last two days I've set him to work on an old cupboard door that's been hanging about here for a few years. I've been hankering for a bench in my kitchen. And Monkey Man reckons he can make one using recycled timber. So he's been removing the paint from a cupboard door that once hung in our house. We reckon it's from the 1920s and it'll look quite good. Maybe. If he doesn't poison himself and worry me silly with his reckless ways with sanding and scraping lead paint in the process. Which brings me back to this rubble pile down the side.

It's a waste of space that could be planted out. You can't tell from this photo because it's taken in the late afternoon but it does get a fair bit of sun. At the moment. Next door is a vacant block owned by our neighbour Mr P. and currently housing those rascally goats. But one day they plan to build on it. Three two-storey townhouses. So there'll be less sun one day but still enough to grow things I think. I've been wondering, why not clear it up and make use of it while I can?

Trouble is I am a worry-wart. And there's been a lot of lead paint flaked off from bits and pieces down that side. And I'm worried about the soil being contaminated. Of course, not worried enough to do a test or anything - I'd rather worry than actually find out the facts. (Remember what a worry-wart I was about this). Anyway, I did do some googling (as I do) and apparently flowering crops like beans and tomatoes and squash tend to take up less lead from the soil. So maybe I could prepare for next spring. Or I've been thinking about espaliering some fruit trees along the house wall. Or even growing some trees up the fence side. And maybe I should put some raised beds for veggies in there. That'd stop me worrying about the soil and would prevent Wokee the puppy from destroying them. 'Cos this is her run when she is not being supervised in the rest of the backyard. And maybe this'd be the spot where I can grow some asparagus. I've been longing for asparagus ever since reading about them all over the place on your blogs. But until now I didn't think I had the space.

So what do you think? Suggestions gratefully considered.

Noooooo... Goats!

2012-01-11T10:39:00.000+11:00

Goats don't belong in the suburbs. They belong on a farm. In a big paddock with lots of thistles. Surrounded by a very tall, strong, impenetrable, thick, brick wall to protect everyone and everything from their rotten, munching teeth and smashing hooves.

We came home from a holiday yesterday. I know I have turned into my nana because before we even unpacked the car I was in the backyard inspecting the veggies. Corn as tall as me, tomatoes everywhere, loads and loads of beans. Even Monkey Man delayed unpacking the car to get up the ladder and twist a few beans while I spent half an hour tying up the tomatoes that had grown wild while we were gone.

The little monkeys are spending a couple of nights with their grandparents so Monkey Man and I had the luxury of a sleep in this morning. I got up three hours later than usual to the sound of a yapping puppy. Naturally, I immediately took her outside and went to check on the chooks and the veggies.

Disaster.

The rotten goats from next door had knocked down part of the fence and had been feasting on my garden.
Corn decimated.

Eggplant and capsicum munched.

Strawberries gone.

Butter beans finished.

Oh I am cranky. In fact I nearly shed a tear. Now I know it's not as bad as poor Phoebe who lost all of her veggies in a storm on Christmas day. Or Hazel who is foolish enough to own goats who prevented her from growing veggies all last year. But still. I was only the night before patting myself on the back about the bountiful, beautiful garden full of veggies I was managing.
Hmph.
Well at least they left me the basil and they must have been full by the time they reached the tomatoes 'cos they've only been nibbled.

Just as I was inspecting and moaning my loss for the second time I looked at the hole in the fence and I saw the culprits. Peeping through the crack contemplating dessert. And for a moment my heart melted because it was the cute baby kid who is so friendly and fearless of humans. But then I saw her ugly mother hovering nearby and I came to my senses. So I roared and jumped at them and set Monkey Man to work fortressing up the fence.

Completely Plumed Out

2012-01-01T17:22:00.000+11:00

Thanks for all your suggestions about what to do with my plums. However, I don't think I quite conveyed to you all the magnitude of our plum harvest. We have a rather old, quite large plum tree. Monkey Man and I estimated that we picked about 80kgs of plums this year. I'm completely plumed out.

I made: jam, pavlova with plum syrup, plum cake and pancakes with stewed plums. I snuck plums into pasta sauces. I spent two days searching the internet for the plum chutney recipe I made last year that was a hit and couldn't find it. So I settled on another and made a batch. And then I discovered last year's recipe. On my own blog. So I made some more. Monkey Man forbade me to do any more cooking because the weather was getting hot and he's a complete control freak about curtains and climate control in the house when it gets over 30º. In fact he's rather keen on the weather and is always telling me tedious facts about which direction the wind is blowing from and how cool it is in the front hall compared to outside according to our thermometer. He loves to check the weather radar and alert me when rain is coming. He gets very excited when he reckons a big storm is on the way. And he can't stand it when I do a cook up on a hot day.

So I waited 'til he had a late gig and a sleep in and I cooked up some more jam and chutney.

We gave bags to all our neighbours and friends. I froze plums (thanks africanaussie) and I was about to stew some and pop them in the freezer when I discovered a big tub of poached plums... from last year. So I stopped.

I am sick to death of plums.

Plum picking


Elaborate pulley system erected by Littlest Monkey to collect plums


Plum cake

Oh, and we are heading for a top temperature of 40ºC here in Melbourne tomorrow so I'd better close up the house and plan for salads if I am to keep Monkey Man happy.

Snails and my Lazy Ways... Again

2011-12-30T09:56:00.000+11:00

Some things this year in my garden have been terrible failures. We have had way too many snails. I have lost track of how many cucumber and zucchini seeds I planted. I saw them emerge and the next day... gone. Same with sunflowers. I so wanted sunflowers this summer. I have done several lots of sunflower, cucumber and zucchini seed plantings since November. Eaten by those rotten snails. My basil wasn't going too well either until I took action and protected them with my snail zapper protectors. But I've run out of those and haven't mustered the energy to make more for all the sunflowers and zucchinis and cucumbers I'm wanting to protect. Of course, it probably wouldn't take much to organise some death-by-beer tubs about the place but I haven't been bothered. I'm the type to whinge and take the easy, wasteful way and just plant more seeds.

Mind you, I have been enjoying a snail squash at night. Now that I have a puppy to take to do her business after dark, I've experienced first hand just how many snails we have. They come out from beneath the ground covers and crawl their way along the path to my veggies. Unless they encounter my purple ugg boots taking Wokee for a wee. I've been taking great pleasure in stomping and crunching my way along that path each night.

Nevertheless, I don't seem to have made too much of a dent because things are still disappearing. And just before Christmas the lovely Phoebe sent me a packet of gem squash and poppy seeds. I actually won a competition! But they came with a note that ordered me to protect from snails at all costs. So today it's time to take a stand! If I can find the energy to put finger to keyboard and whine about the snails and my failures I surely can find the time and energy to make a snail zapper. I will make beer baths for them all to drown a happy death in. I will chop up some more milk and lemonade bottles and trim them with copper to protect my seedlings. And I will plant some more bloody sunflower and cucumber and zucchini seeds.

Final Festive Fallen Branch Friday

2011-12-23T07:17:00.000+11:00

I thought long and hard about how to make this last festive fallen branch friday interesting. And I failed to come up with any decent ideas. Well, actually I did come up with some decent ideas but they were at the beginning of the week and they required time and energy... and then I forgot about doing them. Well heck it is Christmas and all and I'm run off my feet with parties and gift giving and cooking and stuff. Yeah it's a hard life! Anyway, I put my promise of an interesting post to the back of my brain. Until 6am this morning when my children and puppy woke me demanding their attention. And once my brain unfogged and I remembered what day it was and my commitment to you I got in a bit of a panic.

And then I had a brainwave.

What is more festive than one of those cutesy hallmarky pictures of an exploited baby animal all dressed up in tinsel in front of a Christmas tree? And I have the perfect cutesy puppy just yelping for camera time. Naturally I have packed away all my spare tinsel, but I did have a Santa hat and at this hour of the morning I thought that would do the trick. So I propped Wokee in front of my fallen branch Christmas tree, turned on the lights and requested that she look appealing. And festive.

Those card makers obviously use loads of superglue and sedatives 'cos puppies don't like to sit still dressed in stupid costumes and look cute. But I did manage one or two festive enough pictures.

And then Wokee decided to eat the hat.

Happy Christmas Everyone!

Thank you to Phoebe for the picture of her tree which has been decorated with her Grannie's very old glass decorations. She tells me that she has been busy making jams for pressies and she has sewn them into bags on an old singer machine with material that she picked up from the hard rubbish. Inspiring!

If you have a picture of your fallen or pruned branch Christmas tree that you still haven't sent in and would like to, please link up here.

Thank you very much to everyone who has contributed their pic over this month. They have been lovely to look at. But you can rest assured that I won't be doing this again next year!

Anyway, have a wonderful Christmas.

Vine Twirling, Plum Picking and Swinging in the Hammock

2011-12-20T14:20:00.001+11:00

This is the current view from my hammock under the plum tree. I'm loving having a swing under there at the moment. Only a few months ago it was all weeds. But you might remember I've been making an attempt to de-grass our yard and this was the first place I started. Those new veggie patches are doing quite well too considering they don't get much sun. The corn is growing nicely and I have a lovely lettuce mix growing well too. Lettuce I believe likes a bit of shade so this has turned out to be a perfect spot.

As you can see, the plums are ripe and are falling off the tree. So, as much as I like to have a lazy swing in the hammock and sip on a cup of tea, it's a bit of a guilty swing 'cos I'm reminded of the work that I ought to be doing. It's great having a whopping big plum tree in the back yard but as you know I'm a bit lazy about some things. And I don't much like picking plums. At this time of year we end up with loads of plums sitting in bags at our back door just waiting to find a home. I spend my time scouring recipe books thinking of recipes to make with them. Of course I will make jam. I also made a few jars of chutney last year and that went down a treat. Any friend who walks in the door will walk out with a load of plums. But still I know we'll have a smell of fermenting fruit in our house and some of the plums will end up in the compost. What a waste. The chooks have already got sick of them. So any plum suggestions from you all will be gratefully accepted.

In other garden news, those beans I planted in the big blue pots are creeping their way to the balcony. I don't think they'll provide much shade for the fernery which was my initial idea but I am nevertheless liking the little bean canopy overhead as I step outside. And they are providing some entertainment and occupation for Monkey Man. Monkey Man isn't much interested in gardening. He likes a big, messy jungle and he has crazy ideas about planting things in the wrong spots and too close together. That's why I've left the front garden to him and I'm in charge out back. But Monkey Man does like a bit of a prune. Whenever we are in a rush to go somewhere you can be sure to find him with a pair of secateurs in hand in his front garden. Only he doesn't do proper prunes, just little snips. He'll leave a big thorny rose branch to poke someone in the eye as they walk down our front path but he'll do a wee artistic snip from a twig nearby. And he loves to do a bit of a vine twirl. He's always finding a bit of vine that needs twirling 'round a bit of support.

And now we have a bean vine right in his line of vision at the back door. So whenever he ought to be making a phone call, or sorting through his papers, or writing a chart for his fourteenth carols by candlelight event, he'll be eyeing off the bean vine. And then he'll get a chair and wind the vine a bit further along the string supports he nagged me to put up. Even when I've already done the vine twirl that morning. So those beans are serving several purposes - beans for food, canopy for shade and entertainment for Monkey Man.

Festive Fallen Branch Friday

2011-12-16T07:21:00.000+11:00

I can't believe it I have actually finished my Christmas shopping - a record for me. We often end up in a mad panic at a mad shopping centre at the last minute, bickering and sighing our way through the crowds. But not this year. Yay!

I have to confess that I am finding it a bit tricky now to write a decent post about a dead decorated branch every friday. And I'm not sure that you all want to read about it either. But I did commit myself at the start of the month and I am not a quitter. So you will have to tolerate today and one more Festive Fallen Branch Friday. I will try my hardest to make next Friday's post jolly and interesting and festive.

Here's my lovely friend Nyree's fallen branch tree made from a branch from a gum tree found in her local park.

If you have a pic of a Christmas tree you've made from a fallen or pruned branch or a bunch of twigs you could email it to me and I'll feature it in my last festive friday post next week. Or you can link up to your blog post here this week or next.

Fluffy Pup Meets Fluffy Chooks

2011-12-15T16:29:00.000+11:00

Wokee loves our chooks.
She loves to sit and watch them scratching away behind their fence.
She loves her morning visit to their house to check for eggs.
And she loves to bury her nose in their pea straw and chew on some chook poo.

So today I thought I'd let her get up close on the other side of the fence.
I know she'd love to bounce and play and bark at them but she didn't. She sat quietly watching. She's a lovely gentle pup.

Festive Fallen Branch Friday

2011-12-08T12:50:00.001+11:00

I am a complete duffa! I've been wondering all week why I couldn't see Andrea's tree from Harvest with Glee on last week's link up. And yet it was showing that there was one entry. Then Jules from little woollie posted but I couldn't see hers. So I did some further investigation and realised I'd filled in my linkylink thingo wrongly. I rectified it on Thursday - way too late. But the linkup to Andrea's is on the wrong page and I have no clue about how to fix that now. So sorry everyone. And then this morning I tried to electronically transfer funds from my bank to enrol in a summer workshop and it wouldn't bloody work. But this time it wasn't my fault. I'm not having luck with gadgets this week.

Anyway, Dixiebelle and Andrea and Jules have all done wonderful trees that you must check out!

I've done my tree too. Well I should say that the Monkeys and I did our tree. But to be honest I am a control freak when it comes to tree decorating. And when I didn't like what they were doing I sneakily moved it over a bit and spread the tinsel around a bit more and slyly suggested that some decorations don't need to go on the tree this year (the ones I think are ugly). All so that my artistic tastes are satisfied. Oh yeah, I'm bad.

Here's our tree. The photos are not the best but I'm having a bad day with technology. What I like about our tree this year is the old metal bucket. Usually I cover it with Christmas material but this year the monkeys wanted to decorate the tree with some thick tinsel that they found in the box. And I didn't want them to mix their tinsels. So I suggested we fill the bucket and surrounds with it instead. So sneaky. So controlling.

And here's my mum's tree. This is the first year that mum has ditched her artificial tree completely in favour of a fallen branch one. She says it's because she's feeling lazy. But couldn't possibly be. Putting up a fallen branch takes just as much effort. I am taking full credit for this change in tradition!

Ah you wouldn't believe the trouble I just had trying to download those images. What's going on with the gremlins this week?

Now I'm pretty sure I've managed my linkup technical stuff properly this week. So if you have a Christmas tree that you've made from a fallen or pruned branch, please link up here.
And if you don't have a blog but would like to email me your picture so I can feature it next week, please do. Only two more Festive Fallen Branch Fridays to go. (Sorry - do I sound like one of those countdown to Christmas shopping adverts?)

Festive Fallen Branch Friday

2011-11-30T13:12:00.001+11:00

Here's my friend Emma's picture of her decorated fallen branch Christmas tree.

So, has anyone else put up their Chrissie tree yet?

Shamefully, after all my yacking and nagging to all of you - I haven't even done mine. Usually I hang out for December and Christmas cheer but I'm feeling a bit cheered-out already. New puppies are a bit like new babies. Well I am massively exaggerating, but they do require a fair bit of attention and I am suffering from sleep deprivation. My monkey boys wake up at the crack of dawn - 6am on the dot every morning. Then they turn their screen-sitter on for a while, get dressed, make their breakfast and feed themselves all before I have even yawned myself awake at 7.30am.

Up 'til now. Now I have to get up at the crack of dawn with them because they inevitably wake up Wokee who wants to play and bounce about. As well as bouncing about, she tends to have a lot of business to do first thing in the morning and without a vigilant eye she will do her business all over the place. Every rug in the living room has been annointed. Monkey Man's work papers which have piled their way from his desk all over the floor have also become a favoured spot to deposit a little doggy doo.

So consequently, I have kept up my routine of going to bed late but am suffering from getting up too early. And I have been busy starting a website for Eldest Monkey Boy's band (www.whiteoutwired.blogspot.com)...
...and I have been busy finishing off my classes for the year...

Anyway, that whopper of a rant was just a bunch of excuses to let you know that we haven't yet put up our tree. But I have made a start. I have pruned the lilac tree to make way for a doggy run down the side of the house and that branch will be our tree this year.

Here's a pic of the work in progress. See pruned branch with some of the leaves pulled off. I'll show you the finished product next week - promise.
Anyone else who has a tree, please email me a photo and I'll include it in next Friday's Festive Fallen Branch Friday post. Or if you have a blog you can link up here right now.

How Do Your Beans Grow

2011-11-30T06:42:00.001+11:00

Wow beans are weird!

First mine wouldn't come up at all. So I planted more. Then a little bit of warm and wet weather and up they all came including the ones I'd first planted. And now they are growing like crazy.

Remember those beans I planted in the pots in front of my ferns? This is last week's photo...

Well check them out today. They are 58cm tall.

Because I've never grown beans before, I had visions of them making a huge vine and providing a lovely overhead canopy for the fernery over summer. But I realise I was dreaming - I don't think they'll reach the balcony. Doesn't matter.

I've been trying for weeks to get some beans to grow up my tree stump arbour in some pots. But every time I see life, it disappears overnight. And then I plant more and they disappear again. There are a lot of snails in my garden. Which I discovered the other night when Wokee decided she didn't want to do her business in her dedicated business spot and went for a nocturnal wander. While I was following her I saw and felt and heard an absolute mass of snails on the long march to my veggie patch. I had great pleasure in stomping on the lot of them.

Not to thump myself on the back too much but just letting you know that I risked life and limb this morning getting these shots. I knew you wouldn't be impressed with my fuzzy bean photo so I went out with my measuring tape during a thunder storm. Just to prove that they've grown a lot. And because I am such a dedicated blogger, I risked being struck by lightning and got pelted with heavy raindrops to find a snail and take a snap for your amusement. Just saying!

Festive Fallen Branch Fridays

2011-11-25T10:52:00.000+11:00

Were you around last December when I did my Fallen Branch Christmas tree thing?

Well I'm upping the ante this year and thought I'd do a weekly Friday Chrissie Tree meme! Yep. I am now so techno literate that not only can I upload a blog post but...I know what a meme is!

I'm a big lover of Christmas - any celebration actually and since having kids, Christmas has excited me no end. But the Christmas tree thing makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. I've gotta admit I secretly like a bit of tack and tinsel but those artificial trees are just too much. And according to wikipedia it takes at least 20 years of re-using for an artificial tree to leave an environmental footprint as low as a real tree. Real Christmas trees can be mulched when you're done, but you only have to take a look around the neighbourhood in January to see that lots of them aren't. Of course, those potted Christmas trees that are brought in and decorated each year aren't a bad choice but they've never appealed to me. Truth is I don't much like pine trees.

What I've been doing now for most of my adult life is to make a Christmas tree from a dead or pruned branch. Come 1st of December I've just taken a bit of a wander about my backyard or the neighbourhood or park and found myself a branch, plonked it into a bucket and decorated it. And I reckon my fallen branch Christmas trees look bloody good.

2009 Christmas tree made with a pruned Silver Princess Eucalyptus branch.

Now I know from last year that some of you do this too but I'm really surprised that I don't see more of them around.

So this year, I'm sticking my neck out and doing a real plug for the fallen branch thing.

Will you join me?

Go find yourself a branch or prune a tree. Stick it in a bucket and get decorating. Link up to me on Fridays during December. If you don't have a blog you could email me your pic and I'll wack it in a collage on my Friday posts. Now I know some of you are very attached to the smell of Christmas and a traditional Christmas tree. And I get that. But you can join me anyway by making an extra tree for outside or the table or another room.

I thought good and hard to come up with a name for my Chrissie tree meme and I'm afraid "Festive Fallen Branch Fridays" is what I came up with. I know. Lame. Never mind, pretty soon it'll be rolling off our tongues.

Now, if you're super-organised or super-excited about Christmas and already have your fallen branch Christmas tree done, you could link up here now. (That's you Dixiebelle - I saw your goregeous bit of work this morning. And you Hanni - you're pretty amazing with a tomato cage).

Or you could wait 'til next friday - or the week after...

Now, I'm taking this Festive Fallen Branch Friday business seriously. I'm even facebooking my intentions. And I'll be nagging my friends and rellies for their pics. You wait and see.

Chrissie trees from last year

Beans, Weeds and Snail Zappers

2011-11-22T11:57:00.001+11:00

Lazy Housewife Bean

What's the story with beans eh? I planted loads of them and they were all munched by snails and slugs. So I planted more and waited what seemed like a long time. Nothing happened. So I planted some more (remember those pots). And within two days they were up. But so finally were all those other beans I'd planted weeks ago. And now I have quite a lot of butter beans growing and some lazy housewives. None of the monkeys are terribly keen on beans so in anticipation of a bean-glut I decided to get my ears accustomed to the whining and buy some at the market yesterday... the masochist in me coming out.

Butter Beans

I think there are an unusually large number of snails about at the moment. We've had a lot of rain. I don't usually go wandering about my garden after dark but since puppy's come along I've been making hourly visits. And my footsteps are constantly accompanied by crunch noises and I'm not even trying for a snail squash.

Every sunflower seed I planted has been eaten. My cucumber and zucchini seedlings... munched. Six basil seedlings... gone overnight. The only surviving ones are those I protected with my snail zappers. I was a bit skeptical about these because once I found a snail on the inside. But given my basil experiment they must work. I bought the copper strips from Diggers. Apparently they give a little electric zap to snails. I must make more.

Basil with protective snail zapper

In my spring planting frenzy I also sprinkled some lettuce seeds (mesclun mix) about in my new patch. And I have had something pop up. Trouble is, I'm not too sure if what's popping up are lettuce leaves or weeds. I suppose a bit of weed in a salad won't harm anyone.

Lettuce or Weeds?

My passionfruit vine is looking dreadful again. Last year Mr. P came along and sorted things out for me by chopping and building a bamboo trellis and tsk-tsking at my neglect and incompetence. And his efforts did seem to pay off - I saw one flower.

But now it's back to this.

Sick Passionfruit Vine

It seems I am not destined to grow passionfruit. These three vines have been here for two years now wasting space and I am seriously considering yanking them out. But a little voice inside stops me every time. Maybe some miracle will happen and they'll revive. What do you reckon?

Wokee running to me

And finally, we've named our pup Wokee (as in ewok). Eldest Monkey Boy is a massive Star Wars fan. The number of people who suggested the name (including 500m2) when we were already contemplating it was surprising. I suspect that little squashy face makes it an obvious choice for a shih tzu. Anyway, she's bouncing about and entertaining us with her antics and doing all the things I suspected she would. Except that she is smart. I didn't really expect that! And on the third day I was busy congratulating myself on just how smart she is and what a brilliant dog trainer / owner I was when she left me a present. A stinky little poo in the middle of the living room floor. And since then, despite my dropping her on the outside toilet spot every hour and in a high pitched, manic voice encouraging her to "do your business", she much prefers to do her business in a spot of her choice. Hmm. Cute, smart and independent. A formidable combination.

Roos & Goats and New Fuzzy Creatures

2011-11-17T09:00:00.001+11:00

When we returned from our holiday a few weeks ago it was strangely quiet in the garden. Apart from the rumble of trucks out the front door and the yipping of the yappy dogs next door, there was a sound I was missing... crowing.

Seems while we were away, someone in the neighbourhood made a complaint to the council about the noise from Mr P's roosters (remember they were mine originally).

So he ate them.

Sigh.

Then I started to hear another sound coming from Mr P's vacant block that sounded like a baby. Seems the goats have been doing the Spring thing and have delivered themselves a lovely little kid.

And while I've been writing this post, my lap is being kept warm by a lovely new fuzzy creature that I've been contemplating for a while.

Drumroll please....

Our shih tzu puppy picked up from the breeder yesterday afternoon.

Aw. Cute.

We're still in naming discussions and I can't comment on her personality yet 'cos she's just settling in and a bit nervy. But she's very friendly and loves a cuddle and comes when she's called.

I don't think I'm going to get much work done today with this little fuzz ball to keep me happy.

Mulch and Paths and Not-So-Brilliant Ideas

2011-11-14T08:06:00.001+11:00

Bean structures for fern canopy

I quickly got cracking on my brilliant idea. Unfortunately, Mark in his comments to my post was right. Whopping big pots cost a whopping lot of money. But I already have a ginormous lovely blue pot in the corner of my herb patch. My friend gave it to me for a birthday. Trouble is, it's filled and has flowering snap dragons growing in it. Also, some little amaranth seedlings that I've been nurturing for weeks have finally taken off directly in front of the pot. So I was cautious about moving it but impatient to start the job so thought I'd give it a go anyway. Completely unsuccessfully of course. You'd need to be on strong steroids to shift that thing and the trolley was threatening to snap under it's weight.

So I gave up on that idea and headed to my local barn. I settled on a couple of moderately big pots and maybe next year I'll empty the whopper pot and relocate it in front of the fernery too. Hazel also pointed out a teeny flaw in my fabulous idea. If I managed to grow a pumpkin (and judging from last year's efforts it was a long shot) I was likely to be knocked unconscious by it dropping on my head as I exited the back door. It would need to be a rather sound structure to hold the weight of pumpkins and I only have experience building flimsy structures that I'm forever fixing after a storm. Nope, on second thoughts my brilliant idea wasn't so brilliant. So I've taken 500M2's advice and have planted some beans in the pots. I'm hoping they will provide at least some shade for the ferns. And I planted the pumpkins up the back hoping they'll climb the kids' slide and the chook shed.

If only I could manage to get a bean to germinate and grow more than 5cm without being chomped by a snail. Mrs Bok and my fellow bloggers recommended Lazy Housewife beans when we were at our Bloggers' Meet the other weekend so that's what I've planted. And their name really appeals to me naturally.

Since finishing the kids' bedroom renovation I've been the laziest housewife ever. I've retreated to the garden instead and have been in a frenzy of de-grassing and path-making. Remember when I unearthed a brick path a couple of weeks ago? Well I worked a few blisters onto my hands extending the path. We have loads of recycled bricks stacked up against our shed wall. So I managed to make a bit of a dent in those and overcome my fear of red-back spiders in the process. And I also dug up a fair bit of the grass along the way.

Extended path with emerging corn patch in the foreground

I'm thinking I might lash out and get some euca mulch to mulch the remaining paths and maybe also the sitting-about spots too. I remember my mum using it on her garden quite a few years ago and it looked good and felt lovely and soft underfoot. Has anyone else used it? What do you reckon?

The Occasional Brilliant Idea

2011-11-11T07:57:00.001+11:00

Every once in a while I come up with a bloody good idea. And then I spend the following couple of hours thwacking my hand to my forehead wondering why I didn't come up with the brilliant idea earlier.

We have a little fern garden at our back door that is flourishing. Check it out.

Making this fernery was the first spot of gardening I did at our place. As you can see I've spent more time on the garden than completing essential, tedious, jobs like painting around the window frames on the extension. That's been eight years in the waiting but hey it's a very fiddly job and not very satisfying. Now at the moment the fernery is thriving, especially 'cos we've had a lot of rain. But in a few weeks the Summer sun will be high in the sky and the edge of that garden will be touched by it. And some of those fronds will burn and shrivel. In past years we've constructed some ugly, flimsy protection with shade cloth. And I have wondered about building a permanent overhead structure - but that's too much work and expense and would take a lot to convince Monkey Man. But yesterday I had my brainwave.

I'm going to get a whopping big pot and plonk it right in the middle of the pavers. Then I'm going to erect a bamboo teepee and string up some wire from it to the balcony. And then I am going to grow a protecting canopy for the fernery of Summer pumpkin vines.

Brilliant.

The Melbourne Bloggers Met

2011-11-07T09:31:00.002+11:00

Yesterday I met a few bloggers at the Digger's Spring Festival in Heronswood. I'm sure I wasn't the only one feeling a tad nervous beforehand. What if they only seemed nice on the screen? What if they didn't recognise me by the ridiculous yellow tiger I'd pinned to my frock and I had to walk around all day wearing it? What if they thought I was a tosser? Anyway, I needn't have worried because everyone was lovely and kinda just like I imagined.

Mrs Bok organised the do and she had the uncanny knack of being able to spot everyone within the first three minutes. Even those who hadn't posted pics of themselves on their blogs. She was as chirpy and lovely as you'd expect and she quickly offered us all a sample of her vegemite chips (which tasted as expected of vegemite). Barbara from The New Good Life is blessed with the smiliest baby I've ever seen. She didn't frown or spit or grump the whole time. Just sat happily in her sack grinning at everything (although just a warning Barbara, Littlest Monkey started off that way too). Pheobe from Ballynoe Cottage from now on will be known by me as the garden expert. I'll be sending her all my garden questions. She even knew botanical names. And how to pronounce them. Definitely an expert. And Hazel was as lovely as I'd imagined. Still my favourite Victorian blogger - right on my wavelength. (Hmm now I'm feeling nervous that she didn't think the same of me!).

Anyway, we spent a lovely morning and early arvo wandering about Heronswood checking out the veggies and eating scones and perusing the seeds. Of course I couldn't resist making a few purchases. And Mrs Bok gave us all a pressie of a bottle top seedling waterer.

And the day would have been completely lovely if it had ended when we waved goodbye at the gates planning our next meet up at the Melbourne Flower & Garden Show. But unfortunately, an hour earlier (at noonish) I had bid the Monkeys farewell and sent them off to the beach. They'd started to get bored with flowers and veggies and I knew it wouldn't be long before the hissy fits started and my fellow bloggers would cop an eyeful of their true natures. So I sent them away in the car. Leaving myself stranded, but with instructions that I'd ring shortly to be picked up.

Only Monkey Man didn't answer his phone when I was expecting my chauffeur drive home. So I decided to take a wander down the mountain (it might look like a hill but believe me it's a mountain) and meet them at the beach. But they weren't at that beach. So I decided to have a bit more of a wander and walk myself to Dromana. Where there were shops. And as I'd already indulged in Mrs Bok's vegemite chips I decided some more chips were in order. But this time I chose those pretend healthy vege chips that claim to be 40% less fat but come in a 50% bigger pack and taste 70% less good. And I scoffed those while sitting on the beach and made a few more fruitless calls to Monkey Man's answering service and bamboozled myself trying to understand the instructions to the Digger's clover kit.

By this time it was getting rather late. And I started to worry. Something was clearly wrong with Monkey Man's phone. Maybe he was waiting for me back at Heronswood and worrying about where I was. So I started the long trek back along the beach and up the mountain. Only this time I didn't stroll, I walked at a brisk pace with an anxious look on my face. And I arrived with much panting at 3.30pm. But they weren't there! The car attendant fellas were rather impressed with my trekking (or that's what I hope all that laughing and offering of seats was all about) but they hadn't seen the monkeys.

Now Monkey Man I must tell you is a very bad driver. And we drive a rather old, very small car. And I have quite an imagination. So I sat there for half an hour wondering what road they'd been scraped off or whether a monkey had drowned and numerous other scenarios.

And then they arrived.

With casual smiles and all barefoot and sandy. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE TIME IS? Turns out Monkey Man is so relaxed that he didn't even notice his phone was out of range. And he was having such fun racing with the monkeys along the beach he didn't even think about the time. Or about me. So we all jumped into the car, along with my mum who lives nearby and who I had phoned in a bit of a panic and she'd come to keep me company while waiting. And we drove back down the mountain, along the beach and to the ice cream shop. Whilst I gave them a commentary of the trek I had made and all the landmarks that I had already seen. Twice.

So it was a lovely day until the end. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures but Mrs Bok has made up for that. Her post today is chock full of snaps. And there's even one of the bloggers and their feet. But my foot, I fancy, looks rather clean and bouncy and not at all the miserable, red, blistery thing that it is today.

Unearthing Garden Secrets

2011-11-02T10:22:00.001+11:00

Melbourne must be the only city in the world that gets a public holiday for a horse race. We are sport mad in Australia and even sport madder in Melbourne. We have sport stadiums all over the place. If you don't follow the football people look at you like you must be loopy. And to be sure I am. But sport just bores me silly. Don't get me started on my sport rant. Why can't Australians embrace the arts... Anyway, really don't get me started because I become very boring. In fact I have been known to make up facts just to sound more knowledgable when I'm on a rant. Recently at a family function certain nameless family members declared themselves to be climate change skeptics. Well you should have seen me turn purple and start up on a rant.

But I'll leave the blog-ranting to Hazel who does very thought-provoking Sunday rants on her blog. And I don't think she makes up any facts.

No, I'm not complaining that yesterday in Melbourne was a public holiday so the nation could stop and watch some horsies running about. Because I do love a holiday and because Cup Day is the day that marks for Melbourne gardeners tomato planting time. Unless they are me. I had planned to plant the tomatoes but I got stuck unearthing surprises in the ground.

On the weekend, I started to dig up some grass to plant flowers beside the shed when I discovered a brick. I kept digging and discovered more bricks. I soon realised that I was unearthing a path that hadn't seen the light of day for quite a few decades. And the fantastic thing is, this path is right where I was planning on making a path. Remember I consulted you and had decided to get rid of the grass and make mulch paths? Well someone (who has now likely gone to their grave) has done some of the work already for me. But in brick form which is much nicer and more practical.

The funny thing about unearthing a nice surprise like this is that I started to get a bit greedy. I found myself crossing my fingers in hope that the path would continue and pave under the plum tree for me. And I was a little disappointed when of course I found that it didn't.

I started fiddling about in the garden around noonish and just couldn't stop. I was interrupted at 5.45pm by my family. Still digging.

Unearthed Garden Secret No. 1 - The Path

We live near a railway track and in the very early hours of the morning last weekend I was woken by the crashing and banging of men replacing the railway sleepers. Monkey Man offered the workers half a dozen beers for half a dozen railway sleepers and they were happy to oblige. So we scored some garden edging. I dragged these to my backyard (with much huffing and puffing) and as I was unearthing the path I also managed to make some raised beds.

Oh, and I also dug up this old key. Which was rather exciting again as I imagined when it was last held and by whom and where was the door standing that the key unlocked. I fancied I could have been an archaeologist if I had my career to start over. But then I remembered those documentaries I've seen with archaeologists sitting about in the blazing sun for hours on end working with a teeny brush and I know that would be no life for me.

Unearthed Garden Secret No. 2 - The Key

So anyway, yesterday, on the day that was supposed to be dedicated to tomato planting, I didn't have time. Instead I chopped out the broad beans and made a smashed broad bean dip for lunch with friends. Delicious served with sourdough bread, slices of tomato and marinated feta cheese.

I've read that green manure crops and broad beans are good for the garden because they take nitrogen from the air and fix it to the roots to later be released into the soil. Yesterday, while I was chopping up the broad bean plants I accidentally unearthed the roots of one. And I saw with my own eyes what these little nitrogen nodules look like. Now that was exciting too. So I quickly took a photo for you and then dug it back into the soil.

Unearthed Garden Secret No. 2 - Nitrogen Nodules

I did plant my tomatoes in this same bed last year and would have liked to do a bit of crop rotation but for reasons which I will not bore you with, they will be going here again. But on another day. Because after all that path excavating and sleeper hauling and broad bean double peeling I am pooped.

Smashed Broad Bean Dip
• double peeled broad beans (as many as you can be bothered doing)
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

Double peel the broad beans. Slowly cook the onion and garlic in the olive oil. Smash the broad beans with a mortar and pestle. In a bowl, mix the beans, garlic, onion and oil together. Stir in salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with sourdough bread, slices of tomato and feta cheese marinated in olive oil.

2011-10-27T10:09:00.001+11:00

Well, although I haven't been blogging as much as I'd like, I have been busy as a bee both in the garden and in the house.

Look what we've been busy with - plaster, wardrobes and painting in the kids' room! It's a massive improvement from what it was. (That's a shadow on the wall not a mistake with our painting). And despite doing very well in my theatre design classes at uni, I realise that choosing paint colours for house walls is not my thing. It has completely done my head in over this last month. Nevertheless, I think it's turned out well. In fact it looks so beautiful I'm reluctant to relinquish the room to the Monkeys.

In the garden I have surprised myself in a frenzy of pulling and planting and planning following my de-grassing post. I have been checking out your blogs and ideas and taking your advice. I've started pulling up the grass and plan eventually to have mulch paths. Because I'm a wee bit lazy, I haven't taken your advice and done the job properly. Yet.

I know I ought to lay down layers of wet newspaper and then mulch on top but I don't have enough leaf mulch. So I'm just doing a start job for the time being.

New under the plum bed (see the two bean seedlings that weren't eaten by Beverly)

Under the plum tree I've pulled up the grass and have decided to put some big, roundish pavers in. When I find them. I also decided that I could make some more garden beds there. It gets filtered sunlight over summer so something will grow. I popped in some herbs - all self seeded from elsewhere. And in the bit of patch under there that gets more sunlight I popped in some beans. Which already started sprouting until Beverly escaped from my newly erected chook gate / veggie protector and gobbled and trampled most of them.

I made a new veggie-protector gate to keep the chooks out of the patches. No hammering or bolting required - just digging a bit of a hole and popping in some old crates that have been hanging around our junk pile for 9 years. Unfortunately, the slats are the perfect size for a sneaky silkie to squeeze through and help herself to fresh seedlings. So I need to do some more work on it.

I've been extending the current beds and imagining flowers and herbs and veggies in every spare spot. And instead of just umming and ahhing and wondering if it's the right place or if it'll get enough sun, I've just been popping things in - what's to lose. I've put potatoes under the slide - maybe they'll grow. I've mass planted chillies at the back of the chook shed. Pumpkins seeds have been put in pots at the base of the arbour as promised a while back. My table chook tunnel is gradually being filled with pots and herbs. I'm getting there.

But now I'd better get back to filling the new wardrobes and putting the toys back in the kids' bedroom. The best part of having finished the kids' room renovation is that there is somewhere else with a door in which to house Eldest Monkey Boy's new full size drumkit. It has been sitting in the middle of our living room for a month. And it makes a hell of a racquet when thumped by a mini maestro monkey boy.

Celery - My New Number One

2011-10-25T10:07:00.000+11:00

Silverbeet has recently been overtaken as my number one veggie in the patch. It's been surpassed by celery. How I'm loving the celery. I've never grown it before and I'd read that it's a bit tricky. It apparently needs a lot of water and sucks the nutrients from all around so nearby plants may not do too well. But I've surprised myself with a few bunches of celery grown from seed that are flourishing and have received not much attention from me. We've had so much rain over winter and spring so far, that water hasn't been a problem and the nearby garlic doesn't seem to have suffered either. And I'm just loving that I can cut a couple of stalks from the outside of the bunch and it'll keep growing.

I can never use all the celery when I buy a bunch from the market. And I often have a wilty and wobbly half bunch of celery sitting in the fridge at the end of the week. But not now.

I've been chopping it up and putting it in my lentil soups, I've whizzed it in the food processor with other veggies and made veggie patties for the kids and I've chopped it up with other veggies in a stir fry with rice.

Loving the celery.

Surviving the Hissy Fits

2011-10-20T09:14:00.002+11:00

Chives

My littlest monkey is going through a stage. I have to keep repeating Monkey Man's mantra "everything is a stage" because otherwise I'd be wanting pull every curl out of my head. For a couple of months now he's been chucking wobblies... big ones. Neither of my monkeys has ever been big tantrum throwers. The terrible twos weren't that terrible for me. In fact when Littlest Monkey was a baby we marvelled at what a wonderful child we'd been delivered. He was happy to just sit about smiling at everyone. But at six, Littlest Monkey has turned. He is very stubborn - I'll take the credit for that hereditary defect. He takes a long time to make choices. He would prefer to sit at home playing lego than go out and explore the world. He needs to be reminded twenty times to get dressed and have breakfast and to do the numerous other chores associated with getting out the door to school. And he is a very fussy eater.

On our recent holiday he decided he didn't want to do most things. We went snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef - he screamed repeatedly "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" so that all the other snorkelling tourists were snickering or looking concerned or wondering when they would be able to look at the wonders of the reef in peace. At an ice cream shop he couldn't decide what flavour to get - so I chose for him. He took a little lick and had a hissy fit. "THIS IS DISGUSTING!" and stormed out of the shop. While all the other tourists turned with disapproving looks to check out the spoilt child and his ineffective parents. We took a float in a boat on the Daintree River to spot crocodiles and other wildlife. In a voice that was not a whisper he informed everyone that "this is so boring". Only he still has trouble pronouncing his 'r's so it came out "bowing".

Problem is, he has such a cherubic face that no-one can believe he has hissy fits. My friends say he is so cute they just want to squeeze his cheeks and lay sloppy kisses on his neck. So I felt a teeny bit of satisfaction the other day at the park when he put on a show for them. Screaming and stomping about because the food had run out.

Oh yeah, we've been having a lot of tantrums over food.

But the great thing about growing your own is that it really does have a positive effect on kids and their eating. My monkeys are much more likely to try something new when it's come straight from the garden. I'm sure my enthusiasm for the freshness of the veg has rubbed off a bit on them. Last night we speculated about how many minutes old the celery on our plate was. The other day I made pasta. And I suggested that Littlest Monkey choose the herbs that went with the pasta. So the two of us had a wander through the herb garden. I showed him what each herb was and we picked a bit and sniffed it and then he chose parsley and chives for the meal. Good choices - I'm pretty sure lemongrass would not have been a taste sensation with eggs and parmesan. And then he ate it quite happily. Not a whole lot of food went into his mouth mind you but there were no tantrums. And I can't carry on enough about how great it is to have baby spinach growing. I've been picking a couple of leaves each day to chop up and pop into their sandwiches. They will grow to enjoy their greens even if I have to trick them into not noticing it amongst the cheese or tuna or hommus.

So I am hoping that the tantrum throwing stage will soon pass us by. 'Cos it's been catching on in our family and I've caught myself having wee tantrums at the tantrum thrower. Meanwhile, I'll keep sneaking in the veg and tending to the plot.

Look at those dimples. Butter wouldn't melt...

Melbourne Blogger Get Together

2011-10-14T08:33:00.000+11:00

Image from here

Mrs Bok from the Bok Flock has taken the initiative and organised a get together for Victorian bloggers. Yay!

Sunday 6th November at the Diggers Spring Festival Heronswood.

Meet at 11am for the garden tour. 105 Latrobe Parade, Dromana.

Diggers will be running workshops and garden tours and there are activities for little diggers.

We bloggers are all going to wear something yellow - like a flower or ribbon or brooch or something so we recognize each other.

Who's in?

Getting Rid of the Grass

2011-10-12T20:18:00.000+11:00

When I first moved in with Monkey Man nine or so years ago, the backyard was a mess. A great expanse of weed with some well established trees. Good trees mind you, but he can't take much credit for them. The old Polish woman who lived here before Monkey Man had planted a plum and three lemon trees. There were also lilac trees but not much else. Actually, to give some credit to Monkey Man, in the ten years before I came along he had planted a couple of gems - a fig tree and a terrific Japanese maple which has grown enormous. But my neighbour Mr P told me that he reckoned the old lady would turn in her grave if she saw the neglect Monkey Man had inflicted on her garden. Gardening is just not his thing. He likes mess and jungle and non clumping bamboo (don't get me started on that one again). And, it seems, weeds.
Here are some before and after pics from a previous post I did a few months ago. You can see in the before photo that we're in the middle of a renovation - and look at the mess! And loads of grass. Oh and look how little Eldest Monkey Boy is.
Before...

After...

Now, I'm a bit reluctant to post this next photo of this bit of my garden as it looks today... because it looks terrible. I know you will be shocked at how dreadfully messy it is. My only defence is that we've been on holidays and the fortnight before that we were in renovation plastering chaos... and I'm rather lazy and like to focus on the bits of the garden that are working like the veggie patches and ignore the rest. Anyway, here's a rather nasty view of the grass down the back.

Anyway, this week I was reading Dixibelle's blog and she was writing about strategies at her place to reduce weeds and one of her ideas was to mulch the paths that were currently 'lawn'. And it struck me that I too should be done with the grass altogether and maybe mulch all over. And plant more stuff where the grass is and extend my veggie patches even further. Or maybe gravel over some bits? It's hard for me to envisage so I'm a bit hesitant to completely commit but... I think I'm about to embark on a de-grassing project.

So I've been googling about (you know I'm very fond of the google) and have started a little folio of web images of non-grassed gardens. And I would greatly appreciate your input. You can see from my shameful photo some of what I'm dealing with. This shot shows the trampoline to the right, the chook shed, slide and broad bean patch in the distance and is taken from under the plum tree. That colourful thing to the left is a sitting hammock that swings from the plum tree and those planks of wood are seats too. It's actually a nice spot - shaded in summer and sunny in winter... and impossible to see your feet in spring.

So do you have any advice? Am I fighting a losing battle? Have you de-grassed at your place? Any images or links you can direct my way or advice you have to convince me to de-grass or otherwise would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and I don't have much money to spend. So lots of pavers or expensive gravelly things aren't going to work for me. What do you reckon?

Resting

2011-10-09T22:03:00.000+11:00

Just a quick post to let you know that I've been away. A lovely holiday in North Queensland. Lolling about in the sun (smothered in sunscreen of course), walking through rainforests, snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef and allowing the monkeys boys to indulge in an ice-cream a day.

I discovered upon visiting the tropics that I am no longer fashionable. Not that I have ever been particularly interested in what everyone else wears, but I don't like to look odd. And I discovered whilst lolling about in my bathers up north that I was the odd one out wearing a one-piece. Seems I shut my eyes for a minute and every female no matter age or body size is waltzing about sporting a bikini... and tattoo. Well, my white tummy has never seen the sun. And the saggy flabby bits that have appeared below my bellybutton post monkey-births will prevent me from ever appearing in public in a bikini. Although I was once tempted by a tattoo but chickened out when the drill started up and nearly fainted. Which was lucky because it was a really stupid looking tattoo.

So I have posted a modest pic of me in a frock rather than my unfashionable bathers. The shock from the 15º temperature drop upon returning to Melbourne today prevents me from writing a long post - I am longing for my blanket on the couch. Will post later about the garden which seems to have changed tremendously in my two week absence. Looking forward to reading what you've all been up to. Will leave you with a couple of favourite snaps of the Monkey Boys.

Beach Dancing - Cape Tribulation

Forest Walk - Cape Tribulation

Finding More Growing Space

2011-09-23T11:23:00.000+10:00

I've been inspired after reading a gardening book I bought.

Problem is I read the entire thing in one sitting and it left me wanting more. And it was one of those books where I should have had a pen and paper on hand to jot down ideas that occurred to me as I read through it.

I got some ideas about how to utilise the space in my garden more. The book is geared towards balcony gardeners and those with little spaces. I'm lucky 'cos we've got a whopper of a backyard compared to others in our area. But I still long for more space at times. I really would like to grow asparagus but I don't think I have a spot I could dedicate to them. Until the kids get too old for the trampoline that is. I've already got plans for the trampoline spot.

So, some of the things that occurred to me...

• Plant some beans in two pots at the base of this arbor. Can you see the arbor? It's actually just two big branches from a tree that died out the front. It's been stuck into the ground for a couple of years now looking bare and not really living up to the visions I initially had, I've tried in vain to grow clematis up the trunks but they've died. Now I'm thinking if I put some pots at the base I could grow something edible like beans. Worth a try.

• Make better use of the chook run. They have a prime spot along the back fence which is in full sun. But they've scratched it bare and if I planted anything there I know they'd gobble it up in a second. So I decided to make a little shady tunnel for them under this old table and pop a bunch of growing things in pots on top. I'm thinking I can train pumpkins or cucumbers all over the place and make an even bigger, shadier tunnel for them come summer. And I'll fill the table top with pots of herbs and tiny tumbling tomatoes and other edible things. Luckily, silkies can't fly or jump very high so the potted garden should be safe from them. It doesn't look like much at the moment, but you wait til summer.

• Find more things to use as pots. This wastepaper basket was destined for the op shop but I think it'll be good in the garden. I was reading this morning that Liz from Suburban Tomato is also looking into using different things for pots at the moment.

• Make use of the space under the slide. Wasted space behind the broad bean patch that was completely overgrown with weeds (still a few to go) and seemed to house enormous numbers of snails. Tricky thing is, over summer this spot is shaded by the Japanese maple. I don't think it gets much sun at all and I'm not sure what I'll be able to grow there. Any suggestions? For the time being I decided to clear it out a bit and make this little seat to sit on and have a cup of tea while contemplating.

I got lots of other ideas that I wrote down after a second flick through the book and they're waiting for another day.

Meanwhile for a rooster update... as I was re-jigging bits at the back fence my neighbour popped his head over. Not Mr.P but the one with the yappy dog on the other side. In a lowered voice he asked if the sound of those bloody roosters was driving me mad. I assured him that it was, but confessed that I was guilty of giving Mr. P those roosters. Anyway, upshot is that Monkey Man has decided to have a quiet word with Mr. P and suggest that something needs to be done. Monkey Man has known Mr P for many years and gets along well with him. And he's not a big wuss like me.

I'm not sure if "wuss" is in the venacular in countries other than Australia. Translation = gutless, coward, chicken, scaredy cat.

Cock-a-doodle-ooing All Day Long

2011-09-18T13:11:00.001+10:00

Before I embarked on the crazy journey of hatching our chooks from fertile eggs last year, I did think about the roosters we were bound to get. And I had a chat with Mr. P our neighbour. Mr P. has a couple of goats and lots of veggies and he is the font of all garden wisdom being an old timer from Italy. Anyway, he was keen to take any roosters we hatched. He has family with a farm. He also had a rooster wandering about his place. Which is against the rules but I wasn't about to get all rule-obsessed when my dreams for egg-hatching were being realised.

Anyway, lucky for us we only managed two roosters amongst the whole lot and when I was pretty sure they were roosters, I handed them over and tried not to look back. I wasn't entirely sure that Mr. P wouldn't cook them up in a silkie stew. But he didn't. And he didn't send them to his family on the farm either. He has kept them wandering about on his block. And I know this because they crow all bloody day long. This morning at 5.56am I heard their morning call. Which was kinda nice. That's the sort of noise we ought to wake up to in the mornings I reckon. And it makes a pleasant intermission from the sounds of trucks that start thundering past our window at 6am every morning.

Trouble is those roosters don't stop crowing. I hear them over breakfast and over lunch. Whenever I step foot in the backyard I hear them. It's not that the noise is annoying. No. Annoying is a yapping little dog that's been locked out of the house on the other side of the fence. That's a sound that sets my teeth grinding. No, it's not annoyance, it's shamefaced guilt.

I am responsible for those roosters and I suspect they're unhappy. There are too many of them. Surely you should keep only one rooster? I wonder whether he has kept true to his word and found wives for those roosters or if they're all just frustratedly crowing out for some hanky panky with the chooks a few chook hop, step, squawks away at my place. Their crowing brings back uncomfortable memories of my schoolgirlhood. I had the misfortune of attending a Catholic girls' school. There were Catholic boys too but they were fenced off in their own part of the school. And every now and again we would be subjected to the long walk from our school to their school past their classroom windows on the way to chapel. And did those gangs of boys act like a bunch of frustrated roosters. They'd crow and hang out the window and shout obscenities as we tripped past all red-faced and giggly.

Oh I know it's not right to coop boys up together.

But being the gutless veggiegobber I am, I haven't broached the subject with Mr.P. I feel guilty enough as it is. What if his farm-family didn't want the roosters and the constant crowing is starting to grate on his nerves. What if he decides that the best option is to cook them up?

No, I have reverted back to my schoolgirl ways, putting my head down and pretending not to hear them. Certainly I won't be asking any questions when I bump into Mr P. tending his spring crops in the front yard in the near future.

Flu & a Spring Garden Wander

2011-09-14T11:29:00.000+10:00

All the monkeys in my house are dropping like flies with a particularly bad strain of the flu this week. It's roaring fevers and sniffing and lolling about on the couch watching endless ABC TV for everyone. Except me. I'm running about being Martyr Mum - do you want tissues with that? More water? Fluff your pillow? Panadol? A dry biscuit? One of those re-hydrating icy poles? In between running about after all the Monkeys I'm furiously washing my hands with those disinfectant hand washes and averting my face from sneeze sprays directed my way. I refuse to drop with the flu - I've got too much work that can't be cancelled. Parents have been invited to all of my drama classes to participate with their kids this week. And I've only just managed to clean up from the plastering chaos of last week. No painting has been started as yet of course. We are just too bloody busy. I think it is always this way at this time of year for me. Bring on the holidays.

But because of my duty to you dear blog readers, I forced myself to slow down, take a deep breath and wander through the garden. And I'm feeling the better for it. This morning we got a bit of rain which was good because everything was super dry. I really must hook up a drip irrigation system to the tanks this year. I do enjoy standing about giving the garden a water but our tank doesn't have a pump so it is slow. And this summer I'll have three extra veggie patches to water. So, I'll take you with me on my little spring garden tour.

Lots of flowers and colour.

Lovely tall broad bean stalks.

Broccoli still producing and some other brassicas with big leaves and nothing yet edible ... and I can't remember what they are.

Celery safe for now from those cheeky chooks.

Potatoes popping up the top of their bin.

Leeks and garlic going strong.

Silverbeet - the ever faithful and used daily along with perpetual spinach. And a sick-looking passionfruit vine in the background.

And lastly lots of herbs have all sprung back to life.

Happy sigh.

The Taste of Plaster Dust and the Weeny Egg... Again

2011-09-07T15:53:00.000+10:00

Well I had to write apologetic emails to four journalists! Backyard chooks, the beginning of spring and cute pictures of weeny eggs are apparently just want the local media want to write stories about. But as you all now know I'm the shy, retiring type. And I'm content to keep my fame limited to my own blog. I'm rather embarrassed about it all actually.

So I decided to crack open that weeny egg and move on. It was a major disappointment. Nothing but white stuff. I was hoping for a perfectly formed weeny egg yolk that I could fry up and artfully place on a giant slice of toast before photographing and blogging it. But nope. Looked a lot like someone had snotted into the pan actually. So I decided to do without a photo. There have been too many mucusy hankies about our place lately so I couldn't bring myself to eat it either.

Golden Girl has continued in her broody way and remains cosy in her nesting box. She's so far missing out on the spring sunshine. My other chooks however are having a grand ole time escaping from their run to eat my veggies. Despite having free reign of the entire back end of the garden including under the trampoline they've managed to eat every skerrick of grass and understandably the veggie patches look much more interesting than their side of the fence. So I really should put some time into outdoor security but I've been completely preoccupied with indoor matters.

The plasterer finished on Friday and left a layer of plaster dust over every single surface of the house. There's dust in the sugar and in the pillows and on the plates and the taste of dust will not leave my tongue. I've been working myself ragged trying to clean everything and have turned into the crankiest mother around. But I'm almost done. Which is a relief because I organised a dinner party at my place tomorrow night and have nine women hoping to consume a dust free meal.

I've given up on plans to paint everything straight away. Choosing paint colours was doing my head in.

In fact this week everything was doing my head in. I had a bit of a melt down with the stress of it all. Things that normally don't bother me did. It felt like I was screaming and sooking every couple of hours or so. And because I was exhausted and there was dust everywhere and our pantry contents were emptied onto the lounge room floor and the pantry itself was plonked in the middle of the kitchen surrounded by plastic and big globs of errant plaster, we ate more take-away food than I remember ever eating. Which probably wasn't helping my mood.

But it's over now. So I'll move on.

Think Before you Write

2011-09-02T16:43:00.000+10:00

Well I was so excited about my weeny egg that I wrote my blog post and then fired off an email to the local paper straight away. Still high on my discovery and laughing at how funny it all was. And then I unexpectedly got a message back from the local paper saying that they were interested in the story. So of course I started to get anxious.

I don't actually want to be in my local paper holding up a little egg and proclaiming it to be very, very small. I've read the letters-to-the-editor in the local papers and I know the crackpots that are out there. Some of them are nasty. And not too bright. And I may too appear to local paper readers as being not too bright with my fuzzy, ornamental chooks and bragging about my teeny, tiny egg. Now I'm not averse to appearing in the local news - I've done it many times before actually. 'Cos I've been involved in a few campaigns including one at the moment to re-open our local high school. I've even written cranky letters-to-the-editor. But who knows what a fool I would appear with my little egg. It's all very well to look a bit scatty in a blog but I don't want to walk to my local shops and be pointed out as the scatty, self-promoting, weeny egg lady.

So I wrote an apologetic email back to the journalist.

And am contemplating attempting to cook up the egg for the kids' amusement.

The Teeniest Chook Egg Ever Laid in the Southern Hemisphere

2011-09-02T09:50:00.000+10:00

This morning I went to collect my eggs as usual and look what I found! The teeniest tiniest egg ever. It is 2.5cm long and weighs 6g.

Now people warned me when I was considering getting silkies that they laid small eggs and I was a bit concerned that their eggs would be too small for my needs but they're not. They're generally cute sized 4cm long and 36g in weight. Their size depends on who is doing the laying. Either Puff or Fluff (can't tell them apart) lays whoppers - for a silkie. Indie is the smallest of the chooks and she lays smaller eggs.

Now the egg is brown so I know it wasn't Puff or Fluff the white silkies. Golden Girl has been broody - again. So maybe it was her. She was down in the run squawking about with the others this morning which is a good sign. Perhaps she was boasting about her pebble egg. She's always prided herself on being a bit different from the others. Being Golden and bearded and all.

I immediately googled about for information on teeny chook eggs and apparently the smallest egg listed in the Guiness Book of Records is 2.7cm long. There is however some other fella from the US who just made the news last month with a 2.1cm egg from a normal sized chook. But I'm still pretty excited about this egg. I'm thinking that I might email my local papers who always seem to be interested in fluff news items. I could get famous with this egg and do some promoting for backyard chooks and sustainable gardening in the process.

Hmm. Do I want to get famous for producing the teeniest chook egg in the southern hemisphere? I was once hoping my singing career would bring me fame. But I've given up on that one. Yep, I'm willing to lower my ambitions.

Golden Girl are you responsible?

An Update and an Award

2011-08-30T13:39:00.000+10:00

Well, I've been busy, busy, busy and have neglected to blog for a whole week. So here's a little update on what's been happening and a few things I'd been blogging about recently.

Those grow your own mushrooms I bought a month ago have done nothing. Absolutely nothing. Despite my vigilance with daily water sprays and keeping them in the dark, no mushroom has grown. I am tempted to throw the lot in the compost but I'm hoping that if I just give them a few more days I'll see some movement. So I will persist.

Thank you to all for your comments regarding my dog contemplations. Thank you especially to the vast, overwhelming majority of you who wrote exactly what I wanted to hear... that I should get a dog and that I'll have no problems whatsoever with doggy training, digging up the garden or mauling my chooks. Well that wasn't exactly what you said but that's how I choose to interpret it. In fact, Monkey Man has stopped thwacking his head into his hand and has reached a state of doggy acceptance. So I am contemplating a shi tzu or shi tzu poodle cross but I will be patient (I know doesn't sound like me) and wait 'til later in the year when we return from a little holiday.

After a two year hiatus, finally, some action on the house renovation. Monkey Man agreed to getting a quote from an actual professional to finish off the plastering. And when he realised that it wasn't too expensive we booked him straight away and plastering has started. For the first two days I was excited and happy as can be. Especially because the tradie turned up on the day he said and on time! But my excitement has quickly turned to despair. Anyone who has lived through plastering knows the mess and chaos that it creates. And every single room is being worked on simultaneously. We were re-stumped last year so there are massive cracks and chunks of plaster falling off in every room. In fact a bookshelf was holding up the wall beside the fireplace in our lounge room. So although we don't have to re-plaster every wall, we do have furniture piled up in one half of ever room. Getting covered in dust. And as it is that time of month for me, last night I was navigating my way through the chaos and bawling at the enormous chore that faced me this morning - moving the kids' toy shelves to the other side of the room. I am prone to tears at the best of times but when the monthlies come along I'll bawl about anything. This month I reckon I have an excuse.

Anyway, on the first day of plastering our tradie was busy working in the bathroom and the front door was wide open because he was in and out with his plastering bits. Monkey Man and I were both working from home too. Then Monkey Man came and told me he'd just had a chat with a fella who was standing at the door looking about. When Monkey Man saw him, he asked directions to the train station. I said it all sounded highly suspicious and he was probably about to rob us. Which made Monkey Man laugh and made me feel a little guilty about my lack of faith in humanity especially after recently blogging about my failings in this area. But sure enough five minutes later... Monkey Man went to the car and witnessed a police chase and the bloke was caught and handcuffed a couple of doors up! Apparently he had been thieving all over the street.

So I will continue in my nasty, distrustful eye-narrowing ways for now because my instincts have again been proven correct. Lucky he didn't take off with my greenhouse at the front door because those seeds are happening. Greenhouses are wonderful and I recommend one to all veggie growers.

And finally, the lovely Fiona from Arboredale Farm has given me an award. Thank you so much. It does feel wonderful to read comments and get responses from people out there in blog-world.

This award is given to bloggers with under 200 followers. The rules are to:
• Thank the giver and link back to them.
• Nominate 5 others and let them know with a comment on their blog.
• Copy and paste the award to your blog.
• Have fun blogging.

1. Well, firstly I would like to nominate Hazel at Hazel Dene for this award because I do religiously read her blog. But of course she's already been double nominated for the same award! Nevertheless I will nominate her anyway because there's nothing I can see in the rules to stop a triple nomination.
2. And I would like to nominate Ali from Mud Pie because I also read her religiously and because she's bloody hilarious.
3. Funkbunny was one of the first blogs I started to read and helped to inspire me to start blogging myself so she gets one.
4. Mark from his English Veg Plot is always making useful comments and he is a wealth of veggie gardening wisdom so he gets one from me too.
5. And finally Mrs Bok from the BokFlock deserves an award today because she's clearly going a bit bonkers contemplating nappies for a chook.

A Garden Lunch

2011-08-23T13:35:00.000+10:00

Armed with my scissors and basket I went for a wander through the garden in search of lunch today and this is what I picked.

Oh yeah, I'm as happy as can be with this change in the weather.

I was worried the broccoli was past it. I'd left it too late and little yellow flowers had appeared. It's the first time I've managed to grow broccoli and I was expecting it to look like the tight-headed stuff you buy at the market. But it doesn't. More like broccolini. Which is fine by me because it tasted good and nothing can make me grumpy today.

I'd also been told to try out the tips from the broad beans. So I chucked a few of these in my basket too. They are great. Even raw. There were a few silverbeet and spinach leaves, coriander, parsley a lemon and chilli.

Back in the kitchen I made a dressing with lemon juice and zest, chilli, olive oil, salt, pepper, chopped parsley and coriander. I cooked up some noodles, steamed the broccoli and lightly dry fried some flaked almonds and the silverbeet. Then I wacked it altogether with a couple of tomatoes.

And I ate it all in the sunshine under the blossoming plum tree. It is so true that food you grow and cook yourself tastes much better. Oh yeah, I was feeling pretty smug and happy. Because I am the temperamental type to allow the weather to dictate my mood.

This week there'll be a spring in my step no matter what. My sourdough today failed to rise much more than a bit of flatbread. No idea why - it's been working for me every other week. But today I don't care. Because the sky is blue and there are loads of bees buzzing about in the blossoming plum tree.

Even those rotten white cabbage moths that have re-emerged have failed to dampen my spirits. Because look! The one I caught today has been distracted by the flowers instead of going for the neighbouring cauliflower. Something has clearly been eating that leaf to the bottom right in my picture - but I couldn't care less.

I've even removed the countdown to spring in my sidebar. 'Cos as far as I'm concerned it's already here.

On Thieves, Seeds and a Hothouse

2011-08-21T20:47:00.003+10:00

I've been planting seeds this week in a frenzy of spring-anticipated excitement. Until today I had a plant nursery happening in our upstairs room along all the windows. At the risk of boring you silly here's what I've planted: salty ice plant, capsicum, eggplant, dill, tomatoes - heirloom, tommy toe and tiny tim, more broccoli, peppermint, bergamot, amaranth, basil, spinach, chives, comfrey and coriander. Also some marigolds, amaranth and coneflowers for bees and prettiness. It was getting so crowded upstairs with seed trays I decided to get myself a mini hothouse today.

I've been contemplating one of these for ages but the problem was where to put it. I finally settled on our front verandah. It's north facing getting quite a bit of sun and is protected from the wind. I was reluctant at first to put anything out there. The front yard is Monkey Man's domain. It's a bloody mess of a jungle actually but I wipe my hands of responsibility. No, my reluctance had not much to do with aesthetics but more to do with thieves. We have been burgled so many times that I have become a little paranoid. I won't leave rusty old garden tools, bicycles, kids' scooters, prams - nothing on the front verandah lest it be stolen.

I wasn't always this way. In fact I was as gullible and optimistic as Monkey Man once upon a time. But I realised today I've become rather too suspicious.

When I first moved in with Monkey Man we immediately set about renovating and knocked down the back wall. We were protected from the elements by a thick black plastic and that was pretty much it. Intruders who dared venture into our building-site backyard needed only to climb through the slit in the black plastic and open the kitchen door. I did question Monkey Man at the time about this and suggested we get a padlock or something but Monkey Man would have none of it. He has a blind optimism and faith in human nature. Bless him. And I was pregnant and self-obsessed at the time so I didn't really care to think about much except the baby I was growing. The house was in complete chaos. Boxes piled to the roof, mess everywhere, living in one room with a fridge and microwave and couch and mice altogether. So it took a while to realise when things went missing that they were actually really missing not just misplaced amongst the rubble. A work laptop, loose change, gadgets, a digital camera with pics of me and my naked pregnant belly in the bath. A couple of teenagers had been paying periodic visits and helping themselves. I know they were teenagers 'cos our neighbour caught them in the backyard one day and gave them an earful.

Well we eventually got a back wall to replace the plastic but every so often we were visited by thieves anyway. We're a bit isolated - next door to a vacant block of land with no neighbours opposite and on a thoroughfare to the station. Also, I'm pretty sure word had got out in the thieving world that we were completely daft and stealing from us was a cinch. Every so often I'd come home to find some bloke peering in our side window or pushing on the front door. And he'd look at me with fake confusion and ask if Dave or Daryl lived here and was this number 49? On hot nights we'd leave the front door open with only a screen door shut to protect us from the mosquitoes. One night I heard the front gate jingle and someone slowly turning the handle on the screen door. Monkey Man headed outside to find... you guessed it a bloke looking for Gary from number 32.

Finally, I persuaded Monkey Man to put up a side gate and get a security door. And we haven't been burgled since. But I've become suspicious and distrustful. So suspicious and distrustful that I nearly didn't locate the mini hothouse on our front verandah. Until I came to my senses.

Yep germinating seeds and the flimsy hothouse surrounding them will likely bring in a tidy sum at the local cash converters.

Doggy Dreams

2011-08-15T14:46:00.000+10:00

Eaten bok choy

Those naughty, fluffy chooks do sometimes escape from their extensive chook run. And when they do, they eat things I don't want them to eat. Like my bok choy. And my silverbeet.

Now this is entirely my own fault. They can see lovely, juicy leaves from their favourite viewing place under the trampoline. And I haven't fenced their area off properly. This is because they only occasionally decide to explore and I am a bit lazy about some things. But it is frustrating to have your veggies eaten by chooks, especially now that I am mostly growing things from seed which takes longer and requires more of an emotional investment. So I can only wonder why oh why am I contemplating getting a dog?

My doggy desire started as a niggly little fantasy but grew 'til I found myself trawling the internet researching dog breeds. And so it was that I dared broach the topic with Monkey Man the other day. He of course wacked his hand into his head and groaned. "At least" he said "you're not dreaming of another baby". I'm not sure if my doggy longing is a substitute baby longing and I'm not sure I want to analyse it too deeply. Nevertheless, I do find myself wanting a dog.

Now I'm no novice dog owner - I do know what I'd be getting myself into. But I would value some advice from you chooky doggy lovers. Monkey Man has assured me that a dog is likely to eat and terrorize the chooks. I know there are no guarantees, but I'm imagining that I would get a puppy and would train it to be a friend of the chook and to leave them alone. And if it wouldn't, I would use a fence to divide the garden into different territories. A comment that made Monkey Man smack his head even harder into his hand.

Of course, I am a wee bit embarrassed to tell you what sort of dog I am dreaming of ... let's just say it's small and fluffy and would reside indoors mostly. I know I'm so predictable. But it's the sort of dog that isn't bred to chase things... I think.

The other negative is the damage a dog is likely to do to a veggie garden. I'm not so happy about the chooks eating my veggies and I would be even less happy with a dog jumping all over my garden and digging things up. But in my favour, let me remind you all that I am a teacher. And if I can manage large groups of children of all ages (even surly teenagers) surely I could train a puppy to keep off the garden? And keep it's teeth away from the chooks...

... oh and do it's business in a little doggy toilet corner of the garden.

Oh, and before you respond, I'll just clarify that comment I made before about my being lazy. I was of course being flippant. I would have endless enthusiasm and zeal for dog training and doggy fence-building. I am actually a bundle of energy. You know those people you meet who can't seem to sit still, always jiggling about. That's me. I'm the type who would rather go for a jog 'round the block at night after putting the monkeys to bed instead of lying slothfully on the couch watching crap TV.

Oh yeah, that's me.

Winter Wednesday ... the End is in Near.

2011-08-10T08:30:00.000+10:00

Buds on the plum tree

It's taken me weeks to finally hook up with Hazel's Winter Wednesday posts. Remember on that first week of winter when I posted about turning over a new leaf and things to love about winter and appreciating all the seasons even this rotten, miserable one?

Well I tried. I didn't complain about the cold nearly as much as usual. And I did get out in the garden much more than in the past. And I did manage to grow some veggies. So that's a big improvement on previous years and I'm inclined to give myself a pat on the back - because I need encouragement even when it's only from me. But not too big a pat because I couldn't find anything positive to contribute to Hazel's Weekly Winter Wednesdays. Until today. I can manage today a little rave about winter again - how wonderful it is ... because it's nearly over. Yay.

According to my countdown to spring there are only 21 days to go. Last week was as warm as can be for winter. In fact we had our hottest August night on record with a minimum of 17.3ºC and yes the radio stations were playing a lot of Neil Diamond the following day.

But even though the weather has gone back to its usual dreary wintry self, there's a spring in my step 'cos I see signs of spring everywhere at my place.

1. Monkey Man whipper snippered the grass on the weekend. That only happens at the end of winter.
2. I pulled up all the weeds in my dormant veggie patch and realised that a bit of sun was actually shining on this patch. Soon I'll be able to plant a crop there.
3. There are buds on the plum tree (see pic above)

4. Life coming back to the fig tree.

5. And finally, last week we had rainbows. Who doesn't love a rainbow? My little monkeys apparently. They were too engrossed in their daily ration of screen time. Apparently a game of plants vs zombies is far more entertaining than looking at a real life rainbow from the window. Hmph. Anyway, we had lots of rainbows last week. Daytime rainbows and double rainbows and morning and dusk rainbows. This snap was taken by Monkey Man just as the sun was going down. Now you can only have rainbows when there's rain and sunshine. So I'll take the sunshine as another sign that spring is almost here.

Yippidee.

Broccoli Success

2011-08-08T13:33:00.000+10:00

Finally, I've managed to grow a brassica.

For two years I've done a bit of a half-hearted effort but they were always gobbled by caterpillars laid by those dreadful white cabbage moths. This year I had lots of replacement seedlings on standby and I waited 'til it was a bit colder and there were fewer moths fluttering about. I still had a couple of leaves destroyed by the caterpillars and my kale was gobbled by a rogue neighbourhood goat but this patch is looking good.

I can't wait 'til this lot grows up a bit and I can cook it. I've been mad keen on broccoli this winter and have been eating loads of it. I've only just discovered that broccoli stems are delicious too. Am I the only fool who has been throwing away broccoli stems? You can just slice off the tough outer bits, chop the stems and cook them up. They're terrific. Another thing I discovered after reading one of my Diggers' magazines is that bought broccoli (unless its organic) is drenched in pesticides so you need to wash it very well. Of course it is - those pesky moths. Anyway, that's two new things I've learnt this season.

So, in anticipation and celebration of pesticide free, home grown broccoli, I'm sharing with you my current favourite lunch. Today I made it with lemon from the tree (our trees are dripping with lemons at the moment) and a bit of chilli and parsley also from the garden (yep, despite the weather I am still producing chillis). I also had two red capsicums in the fridge which I decided needed eating. I know they're not in season but I do love roasted red capsicum so you could include these too or some other vegetable you have hanging around if you want. I also sometimes chuck in a handful of toasted, flaked almonds. But I forgot them today.

Warm Broccoli Pasta
• 1 head of broccoli chopped, stem included
• 100g pasta
• 2 tsp olive oil
• chilli finely chopped (as much as you like)
• squeeze of lemon
• handful of parsley, finely chopped
• 1 red capsicum, roasted and sliced (optional)
• salt

Steam the broccoli and cook the pasta. Mix together the chopped chilli, parsley, lemon, olive oil and salt. Allow cooked broccoli and pasta to cool and mix with the dressing and roast capsicum.

Blogoversary

2011-08-02T13:05:00.001+10:00

Yip, yip yooray, yip, yooray, I'm one year old today!

One year ago today I started this blog. Thanks to all of you who read and make lovely comments and inspire me with your own blogs and good advice.

My year ago post celebrated beetroot and included a recipe of beetroot choc chip muffins. I didn't grow beetroot this year. The truth is I don't much like beetroot. They bleed everywhere and stain your hands and chopping block and always seem like a lot of bother. Although beetroot does look good growing in the garden. And a picture of it has adorned my blog header for 12 months. But I figured a blog birthday is a good day to change the header. So I attempted to put a new picture up top which showed my lovely crimson flowering broad beans. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the photo the right size and I remember I had to do lots of fiddling about last time. Which I really can't be bothered doing today because the sun is shining and it's warm even though it's winter and this has made me very excited.

I had also planned to make a cake with something from the garden in celebration. I thought a lemon poppy seed cake would be nice. But we already have some sweet treats in the fridge given to us by Monkey Man's sister and I don't want to waste them and I really can't be bothered baking today. Because, I repeat - it is a beeeauwdiful day today and I think I would rather pull up a weed and go talk to the chooks. So we'll have to make do with a candle poked into a lemon to celebrate.

Grow your Own

2011-07-28T09:19:00.000+10:00

I've discovered a stall at the Queen Vic market that sells mushrooms. Not just your average mushroom but all sorts of exotic mushrooms at very reasonable prices. I nearly did a little dance when I saw it because I am mushroom mad. I credit my friend Jo for the mushroom stall discovery. Jo of the "hoist a flag pizza oven" fame. I met her for a cuppa at the market last week and she put the idea in my head that I ought to expand my market experience and venture up aisle B. I only ever do aisle A. I'm a creature of habit. Monkey Man has been doing the weekly market shop for 18 years. And he's always only ever done aisle A. So I've followed his lead. He reckons aisle A is the cheapest. Makes sense to me - right on the end, less people go that far. Anyway, that's what I do. A quick waltz down aisle A with my trolley, duck over to my favourite deli and back up the street way to avoid oncoming shopping trolleys to the car. Until now. Now I go back up aisle B to stop at the mushroom stall and see what's on offer.

Yep, I love them. In fact, I have them most mornings on a bit of toast with spinach or tomato or egg and herbs. There was a time when I had to give up mushrooms for a few days and it was torture. Actually, I didn't have to give them up. I had been convinced by the crackpot in the local health food shop and google that the slight whiteness on my tongue was an internal fungal disease that was causing all sorts of problems to me but that could be cured. If I gave up mushrooms (fungus - see the connection) and spent a small fortune on herbal pills and liquids and concoctions in his shop. My sister the nutritionist did attempt to advise me that what I was doing was nonsense and had no scientific basis. Actually, I can't remember her exact words, she was certainly diplomatic. But her advice was not what I wanted to hear at the time. The "health" food shop had seduced me with assurances that my life was about to change dramatically. My eyes would sparkle, my stomach would thank me, my tongue would redden and I would certainly be a whole lot happier. So being the impressionable type, I did what I was told. Every morning one hour before eating I'd hold my nose and resist the urge to gag as I swallowed my pills and medicines. Then I'd jump into the shower, scrub myself with peppermint castille soap and at breakfast forgo my usual mushrooms for a porridge of seeds.

Until day 5 after forcing down the required concoction I vomited. And then felt dizzy and vomited again and had a roaring headache and took myself to bed for the rest of the day.

A few days later I took myself to the GP. Fortunately not the same doctor who I'd fronted a few years earlier after discovering a lump under my armpit. I discovered the lump on the drive home from my mum. Not sure what I was doing prodding about under my armpit while driving but by the end of the journey I'd convinced myself that I was dying of cancer.

Turned out to be a pimple.

Anyway, I fronted a different doctor and poked out my tongue.
"Look at my tongue. It's white."
The doctor looked at me patiently.
"Isn't that some kind of fungus?" I asked.
"It looks like there's a bit of a white casing on your tongue." He replied.
"But isn't that bad? Shouldn't I do something about that?"
After asking me about all my other symptoms (none), he sent me home.
A wee bit embarrassed.

But home to a bagful of mushrooms. Which I've been happily consuming ever since.

So back to that mushroom stall in aisle B. Not only do they sell a whole bunch of different sorts of mushrooms, but they also sell grow your own mushies. I have thought of trying to grow my own in the past but it always seems more expensive and more bother than picking up a bag at the market. But these grow your owns were only $6. And they are oyster mushrooms. If I can remember to water these mushrooms (and I've already forgotten twice) I'll be very happy.

The handwritten instructions on the sign at the stall were not very comprehensive but I quizzed the stall owner and think I'm doing it right. Spray twice a day, lie the pack on its side in a dark spot inside somewhere and chop them off when they grow and you're ready to eat. They claim they'll produce for 3-4 months. Yummo.

Grey and Drizzly but...

2011-07-25T22:36:00.000+10:00

Oh yeah, I'm counting the days to spring. The chooks however, don't seem to notice the weather. They've been standing about in the rain and then rolling around in the mud. Fluff doesn't look so fluffy lately. It never seems to occur to them that there's a specially made chook shed with a roof for sheltering in. But as I've said before, silkies are not the brightest of creatures.

I'd been warned that silkies were broody chooks but I'm just starting to realise how frustrating that can be. Golden Girl was broody for weeks. She finally got over it and a couple of days later Puff and Beverly decided to play at mum and they've been sharing a box for days now. I even caught that naughty Puff rolling a freshly laid egg from the other nesting box into hers so she can sit on it. I've not been doing anything much to discourage them. Every time I'm out there I remove them and pop them on the grass but a few minutes later they're back cuddling up together in their nest. I know there are strategies to stop this but I think I'll just let things take their course. Unless it drives me completely bonkers. Which it possibly will.

But despite the grey, drizzly weather my spirits were lifted a little on the weekend when I noticed this.

Almond tree in blossom

The almond trees on the nature strip are starting to blossom. That is a sure sign that spring is on its way. Yippee.

So, in anticipation I've been pouring over my Diggers' catalogue wondering just what I'll be planting and where I'll squeeze it. My problem in the past has been that I haven't planted anywhere near enough seeds and so I've ended up with just one or two capsicums for example. Also, I think I planted some things too late so they didn't get enough warmth to ripen (capsicum again). Some of my problem is I think that I need more space than I actually do. I end up with gaps everywhere in my beds and very often I haven't planted enough of what I want. I reckon I'm going to start ignoring those recommendations about planting distances and squish everything in a bit closer. Lots of my seedlings end up getting munched by snails anyway.

Now for a couple of exciting things that I've ordered from Diggers... salty ice plant. This sounds like a herb just right for me - a salad leaf with a salty taste. Has anyone ever grown this and if so how have you used it? I'm also trying out amaranth (for the leaves not the grain). And in an attempt to attract more bees and good insects I'm popping in more flowers that are supposed to be veggie garden companions. We'll see how I go.

Bring on spring. In the meantime, I'm off to organise some indoor seedlings. Hope I'm not too early.

Sesame Rice Crackers

2011-07-20T15:56:00.000+10:00

In my super mum fantasy I only serve up home-made, nutritious food for my monkeys. Their lunch boxes are packed with a changing menu of healthy goodies that are all eaten. And after school the monkeys beg for a bowl of soup or veggie sticks with home-made dip or fruit and never even notice the salty, chemical laden rice crackers that I've hidden in the pantry for my own secret snacking.

Of course in real life I'm always making monkey lunches in my dressing gown while simultaneously begging littlest monkey to remove himself from the heating vent and put his school shoes on. And I'm always making the same carrot and cheese sandwich that often comes home only half eaten. And I'm chucking the same bits of fruit in the lunch bags while cursing the price of bananas and little monkey's reluctancy to consume apples. And I very often let them eat those salty rice crackers when they come home from school. Even though I want them all to myself. Because I have acquired an addiction to the chemical, salty taste of rice crackers and I've managed to kid myself that they are good for me because they are low in fat. In fact I am so keen on those crackers that I lick all the salty, MSG bits off first and then suck up some more before crunching. But I do all of this with little pangs of guilt.

I sometimes lash out and buy those sesame rice crackers you see in the health food section of the supermarket. Have you seen these ones? They're good but expensive. So I really can't justify buying them even though they do satisfy my cravings.

So I was most pleased with myself indeed on the weekend when I managed my own version. I'd googled about a bit but could not find a recipe that looked right to me. Those sesame crackers only have sesame seeds, tamari and rice flour in them... how hard could they be? So I decided to put my masterchef hat on and had my own little invention test. It took a few goes but I finally managed some that were pretty good. The trick is to get them really thin and for this I used a pasta machine - how inventive is that?! And then I realised that I must blog about this. But I'd be breaking my own rules if I did. I'm only allowing myself to include recipes in this blog of things I make that I've grown from the garden. And I am a stickler for rules. So I decided to repeat my cracker-making for the third time and take photos of the process and ... add parsley! Yep, I know how to get around self-imposed stupid rules.

So here 'tis. A home-made sesame rice cracker with no MSG and not too much stroke-inducing saltiness. And all done while fully dressed. I am super mum this week.

Sesame Rice Crackers
1 cup rice flour (I used unpolished rice flour)
1/2 cup sesame seeds
2tbs finely chopped parsley
1/8 cup tamari
1/4 cup warm water (roughly)

Put the rice flour into a bowl and mix in the sesame seeds and parsley. Mix the tamari and warm water together. Gradually add this to the flour mixture forming a sticky dough. You may not need it all. Put the dough onto a floured surface and roll it into a ball adding more flour if needed. (Rice flour is very sticky). Divide the dough into smaller sausages.

Squash one small sausage of dough between two pieces of wax paper. Make sure there is plenty of room at the sides and a few cm of paper at the top to push through the pasta machine. Wheel the dough through the pasta machine on the widest cog being careful to keep it between the paper (I imagine it would be impossible to clean if the dough got into the machine.) Repeat through the machine two more cogs thinner. You may need to chop some of the dough off at the end so it doesn't end up out of the paper and into the machine.

Remove the top piece if wax paper and place on a tray. Now if you were very patient and fussy you could pop it in the fridge at this point and then later use a biscuit cutter to make the crackers into a circular cracker shape. And I madly did do this for about 3 but quickly came to my senses and decided to have rough looking crackers instead.

Cook in a 200º oven for 5-10 minutes until just crispy. Watch carefully - they very easily burn. Allow to cool on a wire rack, remove the baking paper and break the crackers into pieces.

A Little Fire in my Winter Garden

2011-07-17T09:22:00.000+10:00

We returned from a holiday a couple of days ago. The house is an absolute bomb. Not only are there suitcases ready to unpack and dirty washing and toys and the usual stuff strewn from one end of the house to the other, but every item that previously resided in the laundry has been dumped in the living room while Monkey Man finishes the plaster / paint job. Not a pleasant house to come home to. So rather than start cleaning and washing, I popped outside for a bit of a meander in the garden and what did I spy...

Two red chillis in my garden. Smack, bang in the middle of winter.

I planted these chilli seedlings at the wrong time of year. My neighbour Mr P gave them to me and suggested that even though it was Summer I plant them anyway and see what happens. They did get a very good spot in the ground. They were plonked behind the chook shed. This was previously habited by a big, spreading bamboo jungle that was an absolute nightmare to dig out. (Read here if you're at all interested in why you should never plant bamboo). So the ground was heavily mulched with years and years of bamboo leaf mulch and before I planted the seedlings I deposited a load of compost on it. Later, poor Wonky the lame rooster/chook died and was also buried there. And it is a rather warm, protected spot with a corrugated iron fence on one side and straw and chook poo on the other.

Now I know what all you international visitors are thinking. That veggiegobbler is a real whinger. She's been complaining about winter and the cold in her part of the world and clearly it is not even cold. In fact it is obviously warm enough there to grow chillis in the middle of winter. Well it is true that I hate winter and the cold but to my credit I did just tolerate a day trip to the snow and for the sake of the children I pretended to enjoy it - most of the time.

But I really cannot explain those red chillis. I did a little google and apparently chillis need 30ºC or more to ripen. Hmph well that is obvious piffle. Today we are heading for a top temperature of 14ºC and yesterday morning there was frost on my brassicas.

The only explanation I can come up with is that I am obviously a brilliant gardener who has warm, green fingers.

Chilli plants behind the chook shed

Another Holiday Job Done...

2011-07-08T11:04:00.000+10:00

Remember that old washer I decided to turn into a water feature in our garden in this post?

Well look!

Every morning this week I've been braving the elements to work on this mosaic. Today I finished. In fact 30 minutes ago I finished and my fingers are still burning and numb from cold as I type this.

It's not perfect - in fact little bits fell off as I was grouting this morning. Which certainly made me curse. But didn't stop me rubbing in a frenzy to finish the bloody thing. Truth is, the last couple of days I've been hanging out for it to be finished. I'm the impatient type. Once I start a job I have to finish it. Unlike Monkey Man who likes to make a huge mess at the start of a job and then nearly finish, leave the mess sitting for a few weeks and then conveniently forget to finish the started job.

But yesterday - I persuaded Monkey Man to finish plastering the laundry. And he has. Nearly. We've had big sheets of plaster propped up in our hallway against the bookshelf for four years. I remember when the delivery man plonked the first lot there and looked dubiously at Monkey Man. He said he wasn't supposed to leave sheets of plaster like that, especially where there are children around, because it is dangerous if they fall. Monkey Man assured him that they'd be up on the walls as quick as sticks and not to worry. Hmm. Well those sheets were drilled up onto the walls but they were quickly replaced by others as the next bit of wall needed doing. And ever since then there have been bits of wall that need plastering and bits of plaster up against that bookshelf wall. Until last night.

It took Monkey Man the entire day, but he did manage to get three big sheets of plaster glued and drilled up onto the ceiling with the help of an enormous piece of hired machinery and intermittent assistance from myself and Eldest Monkey Boy. The contents of our laundry are currently scattered all over our living area and Monkey Man was considering bringing them back in because he thought his job was done. Until I had a little hissy fit. Was he serious? Did he really think that I wanted a laundry that wasn't even patched and sanded and painted?! I know it's only a laundry but finish the job! Anyway, since that little rant I have had a dance in our cleared up hallway. And ticked off a couple of holiday jobs in my little black book:
• mosaic the washer - tick
• get Monkey Man to remove the plaster in the hallway - tick
• convince Monkey Man to finish plastering the laundry - half tick

and the next job on the list...
• write our wills.

Yep. Married, two kids, early 40s and no will. Must thrash through this one so I can stop worrying about what'll happen to the kids if Monkey Man and I both cark it following a ladder incident while attempting to patch the laundry ceiling.

The Sound of Feral Cats Mating

2011-07-05T08:40:00.000+10:00

Wikipedia

In the early hours of this morning Monkey Man and I were awoken by a rather alarming sound. At first I thought it was Littlest Monkey Boy having a bad dream. But it didn't sound like a very upsetting dream. He was singing: "Oooooh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, no, no, no, no" in a descending scale. Repeatedly. Then I thought it couldn't be him - much too tuneful and rhythmic for Littlest Monkey. I realised there was a second voice singing along too. I was then convinced it was a couple of witch-kids dressed in sheets casting a spell with accompanying song and dance on our nature strip (in my defence it was 3am and I wasn't quite awake). Monkey Man and I lay rigid in our bed fiercely whispering our speculations. Until I persuaded him to turn the front light on and scare the kid-witches away. So he did. Except that they weren't witches - they were feral cats having a jolly good, noisy, mate on our front patio.

Our neighbourhood is riddled with feral cats. Our neighbour Mr. P encourages them with food. He thinks they keep away his mice. Better a bezillion cats roaming about killing the wildlife and waking the neighbours than mice must be his philosophy. Frankly, I'm inclined towards the mice.

A couple of years ago one of these feral cats had kittens and deposited them in a pile of rubble behind our wood shed. The sound of teeny kitten mews coming from a pile of timber almost melted my hard heart. I briefly entertained the thought of raising these kittens as pets. But I was attempting to raise my own babies at the time and I suspect the extra duties would have sent me completely bonkers. So we did the responsible thing and took them to our local vet. Where they were probably euthanased.

I used to quite like cats - until I started to garden. I always thought cats were clean creatures who buried their business and spent most of their time grooming. But I've since learnt that they aren't. The feral cats around our place will drop a plop anywhere that takes their fancy. And what takes their fancy are places where I like to dig or step. Newly dug patches of dirt waiting for new seedlings is a place where I'll put my gardening glove into a fresh lump of cat poo. Or out front beside the garden path. And they certainly don't cover their messes up. They'll leave them atop the mulch for my nostrils to notice every time I step out the front door. I can smell a cat poo from 7 metres.

There was a time when I planted a herb that claimed to deter cats from your garden. I think it was called "cat-off". Anyway, it died. And it didn't keep the cats away. I've heard that orange peel can do the trick. They don't like orange peel apparently. But despite having a messy garden, I don't much like the thought of creating even more mess by scattering orange peel all over the place.

So I've declared noise-war on the feral cats. There's one in particular that loves to sit on our compost bins watching for mice. It completely ignores the chooks and I see evidence of its success with the mice but I'm nevertheless at war. It can take it's stinky poo and noisy, nocturnal entertainments elsewhere. Whenever I see it, I shout and hiss from the back door sending it scuttling away. And my monkeys have taken to imitating me too. Our neighbours must wonder about our sanity but I don't care. I hereby declare my garden - front and back - a cat-free zone. A big, hairy, scary, red-faced human can make more noise than a feral cat any time. Go take your poo to Mr P - he has a much friendlier garden.

Yippee an Award

2011-07-01T08:09:00.000+10:00

Well thank you Hazel for my blogger award! I am enjoying my moment in the spotlight. In fact, despite being winter, we have been having lovely blue skies lately so I might go stand in a patch of sunlight today and bask.

Like Hazel, I'm not so keen on answering tricky questions about myself so I'm glad too that this award comes with simple instructions to pass on to five others. So here are five versatile bloggers I've come to know and love. Enjoy and pass on dear blogger friends.

1. Funkbunny. She was one of the first blogs I came across. When I saw what she was doing it inspired me to start my own blog. She blogs on Mondays about things she grows and what she's been making in the kitchen. And she's very handy with a needle and thread.

2. Christine from Slow Living Essentials. She seems to know how to do everything. I wish she was my next door neighbour. Want to build a wood fired oven? She knows. Make your own soap, crochet, dye, preserve, make bread... she can tell you how. This week she even told us how to make a conditioner for your hair with rosemary. I'm almost inclined to try it except I have a very big mop of knotty, curly hair and I just don't think rosemary will do it for me.

3. Gavin from the Greening of Gavin. Like me, he lives in the West of Melbourne and he's made an inspiring green change. His blog is fully of interesting and informative stuff - like how to make all sorts of cheeses (which I'm not yet inspired to try) and how to get the most out of your solar panels (which I have been inspired to try).

4. Mrs Bok from The Bok Flock. She has plenty of helpful advice on all things garden and chooks. Like all the other blogs awarded here, I read her religiously. I had conjured an image in my mind of what she might look like and was rather shocked when she posted a picture recently to discover that she is rather glamorous and has most un-feather like hair.

5. Shinshu Life. She blogs about her life in Japan. She's an English language teacher but also manages to cook, farm, grow lots of veggies and mothers two young kids. I'm recently enjoying her postings about a bunch of baby ducklings she's mothering and a rice field she's preparing. Phew, where does she find the energy? Not only that, but I've nominated her because I'm a bit of a fan of nepotism when it works in my favour! And she just happens to be Monkey Man's cousin's daughter.

Another Winter Whine

2011-06-29T09:24:00.001+10:00

I've tried pretty hard to embrace my inner winter but I've run out of goodwill for the season. I reckon Golden Girl might have the right idea - she's been snuggled up in her nesting box since the first sign of cold. After my post on the first day of winter when I exhausted myself enthusing five things to love about this season, I've had to disqualify myself from Hazel's Winter Wednesday postings. I haven't been able to think of anything worth blogging about on a Winter Wednesday. And lots of those things I blogged about loving on the first day are starting to irritate me now. I lost those gorgeous gloves after one too many wines out with the girls. Eldest Monkey Boy kept fighting me for the fuzzy sheepskin on the comfy chair. The fireplace got damaged and lost a big chunk from it's back and now whenever it's lit, I think of another household job to do, the money we'll have to spend repairing it and the health hazard we're creating by letting smoke escape into the monkey boys' room.

For the past few weeks I've been racking my brain so that Hazel doesn't think I'm a complete dud. I even dedicated an entire week's worth of drama classes to celebrating the Winter Solstice and the kiddies and I did lots of imaginative winter stuff re-creating ancient rituals to bring back the sun and wrapping ourselves in black sheets creeping around to new age music being the evil darkness (yep I do get paid for this!). But it didn't make me feel much better. Sure it won't get any darker any earlier or lighter any later now but the Winter Solstice doesn't actually signify the middle of winter... there's still loads more to go and July is surely the coldest month of our year.

But yesterday while I was sitting in the backyard I did manage to find a couple of things to cheer me up amongst the weeds.

This wee crimson flower that caught my eye on the broad bean plants. I think I've turned into a bit of a nana - little things like that excite me. I'm so glad I planted a combination of white and crimson flowered broad beans - beautiful. And because this is pretty much the first year I've attempted to grow edibles over winter and because I now have chooks to tend to outside, I've noticed a lot more about my garden at this time of the year. Last week I told you the discovery I made about parts of the garden that don't even receive a ray of sunshine at the moment. Like the herb patch - which last year also housed my garlic. No wonder the garlic did so poorly. I've also discovered that one of my other patches just isn't getting anywhere near enough sun at the moment. And the snow pea seeds I've attempted are not even making a showing. The few that popped their heads up before the sun got this low have been completely chomped by snails. So in the future I really ought to just plan a rest for a couple of my patches over winter and concentrate on the back patches near the chook run. I wonder if there's a green manure crop for winter spots that don't receive much sun?

But because winter in my garden is all about the bottom end, I've been prettying it up a bit down there. I've put to use some of the bits that have been hanging about and recycling them as pot plants. I popped some pansies in this old paint tin.

And into this leaky old watering can.

And this broken thingy my mum gave me years ago.

And I'm figuring that waxing lyrical about a couple of flowers that are colouring my winter is enough to give Hazel the impression that I'm actually a really positive, earth-mother type who can see the good in everything.

Look What I've Grown in the Kitchen

2011-06-23T11:08:00.000+10:00

This blog is supposed to be about things I'm growing in the garden and using in the kitchen. But there is NOTHING HAPPENING out there! Sorry for shouting, but it's winter and I have planted things - broad beans, bok choy, spinach, leek... lots of stuff that's being eaten by snails and growing at a snail's pace. The only things I've been picking to cook are the occasional silverbeet leaf, rosemary for my roast veggies and lemons that get squeezed into Monkey Man's cup of tea. And I need to have something up my sleeve to blog about later - there's still lots of winter to go - 69 days and 23 hours according to my sidebar counter.

So I thought you wouldn't mind too much if I blogged about something very exciting that I've been growing in my kitchen (aside from the mouldy veggies and fruit in my crisper - tsk tsk). What I have been growing in the kitchen is so alive that the professionals call it a "mother". Yep I've been making a sourdough starter.

I realised that I'd already come to think of it as a living thing when I was letting my dough rise last night. I'd propped it in a very obvious spot on the floor in front of the fire. Some would say that was a rather silly spot to put a dough but we all knew it was there. You should have heard me squawk when Monkey Man inadvertently plonked his heel on it while simultaneously tossing another log on the fire. I yelped louder than if he'd stomped on my own little toe and jumped up faster than I've been known to move after 8pm on a cosy winter's night. Fortunately, I did have a moment of self-awareness as I sat patting and cooing over my poor loaf of bread and sending Monkey Man daggers and realised that I was slightly over-reacting and decided to pull my head in.

I'd been thinking about making sourdough for a month or so now and coincidentally lots of blogs I read started to tempt me with their sourdough and bread-making stories. I do love to check out what Christine from Slow Living Essentials has been doing. She recently posted about her sourdough and whenever I read her I see the picture of that woodfire oven in her garden which is another thing I've been tempted to tackle. My friend Jo and I have been talking about wood-fired ovens. She's planning one and reckons that when she fires it up she's going to hoist a flag in her back yard which will be a signal for all the neighbours to come on over and pop their own breads or pizzas in her oven if they feel so inclined. What a lovely idea. Unfortunately, we don't live within flag-sight of her place so I think I might just be wanting to make my own. Rather, what will probably happen is that I will order Monkey Man about and he will make me one under my strict supervision and bossing about. In retrospect I might need to put that one on hold 'til I've finished bossing him about to plaster and paint and hammer on skirting boards and clean up the mess on his desk. (Hmm not sure I'm painting a very nice picture of myself in this post. I bet you're all feeling really sorry for Monkey Man and wondering how on earth he puts up with me - aren't you!)

But back to the sourdough. I've been feeding a container daily with a bit of pineapple juice and flour for 7 days and now have a tangy, beige splotch of stuff called the "mother". As I may have mentioned once or twice I'm a bit of a googler and love to research before starting up a project. A very informative and detailed sourdough making website I found was Sourdough Baker which I thoroughly recommend to anyone interested. I followed their instructions to the letter. If nothing else, thirteen years of Catholic education has instilled in me a very strong talent for rigidly following instructions. The Sourdough Baker advised me to test my mother out on some semi-leavened loaves with a wee bit of added yeast. And that's what I did yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn't start my bread-making 'til 2.30pm, not quite realising that sourdough is a much longer process than normal bread making. So I ended up pulling this loaf out of the oven at 12.30am. Of course, the smell of hot bread was too hard to resist and I had a teeny midnight snack so the crusty end bit is missing from the bread in this photo... but check out what I made!

Very pleased with myself. And feeling only a little guilty that I skipped my 6am yoga class 'cos I went to bed too late and it is too cold and dark and miserable to get up that early when you've been baking bread and eating it only five hours earlier.

Lots of Eggs

2011-06-20T11:16:00.001+10:00

Who said silkies were bad layers and produced teeny, tiny eggs and were really just ornamental, fuzzy pets? My silkies are all now laying. It's true the first egg I discovered was a weeny one but they're now all about 5cm long which is a fine size for me. And unlike some blogging friends whose chickens have stopped laying over winter, mine are still going strong. I'm usually getting four eggs a day from the five chooks. Golden Girl laid for a couple of weeks and then went broody. Apparently, this is very common for silkies. I am a bit worried that she will wither away to nothing. She just sits in the nesting box all day and night. So a couple of times a day I pick her up and prop her in front of the feeder. She has a bit of a peck about and then goes back to her empty nest. Poor thing.

Even though it's winter (yay, enthusiastic clapping and smiling through gritted teeth), I'm rugging up and occasionally sitting out the back just to watch their antics. They're very tame now. They come running when they see me and squat, bellies on the ground to get a pat. I know it's because they love me - not because I come bearing edible treats.

Littlest Monkey has the job of locking them up at the end of the day. Last night they must have been having a late night peck round the back of the trampoline because they accidentally got locked out of their coop all night. They were pretty cranky this morning when I opened the door to let them in. They clucked at me crossly and went running to their feed tray. Except Golden Girl - who had been sitting warm and I presume happy in her nest all night.

So I thought today I'd share a recipe I made with some of the eggs I've collected. A simple Sunday night dinner - Spanish omelette. It was happily consumed by two of the biggest Monkeys but Littlest Monkey unfortunately went on strike when he sighted the dinner offerings. Unluckily for him I can be rather stubborn myself and I refused to provide him with anything else. So he went to bed on a cup of milk.

Potato Omelette

• 9 small eggs, beaten
• 3 potatoes, cubed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 red capsicum, chopped finely
• 2 tbs grated parmesan cheese
• chopped parsley for garnish

In an ovenproof frypan, cook the onion, garlic and potato in the oil on a moderate heat until golden. Add the capsicum and the beaten eggs. Gently sliding the veggies about until the egg mixture gets to the bottom of the pan. Pop on the lid, turn the heat to very low and cook until firm. Sprinkle the grated parmesan on top and put under the grill. Cook until golden and firm on top. Sprinkle with the parsley.

One Step Forward, One Step Back

2011-06-14T12:28:00.000+10:00

Happier herb

I was quite industrious in the garden on the weekend. I decided the herb garden was looking scraggly and needed a good clean up. So I moved all the pots about and hung a few of them on the fence and weeded the ground. Then I paid a visit to my favourite big barn Bunnings (where I always get tempted to buy things I ought to grow from seed myself) and got a few seedlings. I spent a little while looking at a whopping big greenhouse which I was tempted by as well. Fortunately, there is absolutely nowhere in my yard where a greenhouse would currently fit. Then I was eyeing off the seed potatoes when a lovely Bunnings man quietly advised me not to waste my money. He told me all about how his family used to do it (more on potatoes in a future post). We started chatting about blogs and how he was thinking of setting up a blog once he retired from Bunnings. The next thing we were exchanging emails and I was promising to follow his potato instructions and send him a link to this blog and I think he was dreaming of retirement, his new ventures into blog world and fixing motor mowers.

Anyway, I tidied up the herb patch and spent most of Monday admiring the new view from the back window. But then I noticed that I wasn't seeing any sun in that herb patch. None at all. For the entire day. I consulted with Monkey Man (he who knows all about the seasons and sun and just how far the sun extends into the garden at what time of day and what time of year) and I was informed that the herb garden receives no sun during the depths of winter. Not a bit. You'd think I'd have noticed this in the past - I have lived here for almost nine years now, but this was news to me!

This new information caused me to get into a bit of a flap. Why did I just waste my time (and money) cleaning up the herbs and sorting them onto the fence and planting new parsley seedlings and coriander and such if they were going to be sitting in the shade for another six weeks? The only solution was to re-locate them to way up the back along the chook run for winter.

So I did. Once I finished that, I persuaded Monkey Man and a visiting friend to break their backs and move the old laundry trough up the back too. I have plans to grow some veggies in this trough. Once that was finished I was sitting on the slide admiring my handywork when it occurred to me that the peeling paint on that laundry trough was likely to be lead paint. And now it was peeling flakes into my veggie patch. Right near the chook run. This induced another more intense flapping about on my part.

I have been in a lead-poisoning flap before. A few years ago I noticed all of our internal doors were chipping away and desperately needing some attention. But then I realised that they hadn't been painted in many years and that they were most likely covered in lead-based paint. The worst thing to do when you're a bit of a worrier and discover something to worry about is to google it. So that's what I did. By the end of that hour I had convinced myself the whole family was about to die of lead poisoning. I eventually got over that one, painted the doors and haven't worried about a possible lead death. Until now.

Now I have a perfect view from my back window of the herb garden re-located to an inconvenient spot but at least bathed in sunlight. But what I really see first thing as I open my curtains is a flaky, old laundry trough smack bang in the middle of my garden. Just waiting for a bit of rain to come along and wash away a few more flakes of lead and poison my soil, or a gust of wind to come and blow some dust up my nose and poison me and my chooks and my monkeys. Oh dear. I'm going to have to don the mask and scraper and scrape it all off today before I worry myself into an early grave. I'll try not to remember all those dire warnings I googled a few years back about lead dust getting up your nose and fingernails and in your hair and clothes... I'm consoling myself with the memory I'm sure is mine, of a baby standing up and chewing the timber of the cot. There must be thousands of babies born in the late sixties and earlier who chewed the lead paint off their cot. And we haven't all died yet.

Now before you comment today, bear in mind that I am an anxious, worrying kind of person (if it hadn't already occurred to you). And I have already worked myself up into a bit of a state over this one. Consoling, re-assuring comments about how lead-based paint poisoning is all an urban myth, or that there is new medication out now, or that the paint in the picture surely doesn't look like lead and other such comments will all be gratefully received.

Offending laundry trough

What You Doin' in my Backyard?

2011-06-09T09:23:00.000+10:00

My winter veggies are going dreadfully.

I'm sure I planted a bezillion seeds. They certainly took all the upstairs window space and quite a bit of the floor space along the glass doors a few months ago. Monkey Man teaches up there and he commented that it was looking like a plant nursery. I think it was providing a welcome visual relief for those poor kids who must have been going cock-eyed looking at little notes as they blow and tongue their way through Saxophone Solos for Beginners. Anyway, I reckon a third of those seeds failed to germinate and then as soon as I popped the successful ones in the ground they were munched. I still seem to have white cabbage moth caterpillars even though it's bloody cold and I haven't seen a moth for ages. They've certainly left a lot of babies about to pester me.

Not only are they being munched by caterpillars, but Puff or Fluff keeps escaping the flimsy wire barrier I've erected between chook and veggies. No-one to blame there but me. She has a lovely time stomping on my garlic and munching on the silverbeet seedlings. And provides me with thrice daily treks out to the cold to retrieve her and plonk her back where she belongs. Not that I'm complaining about the cold mind you! Oh no... remember I love winter. Despite losing my arm warmers on Friday night after one too many wines out with some girlfriends I just looove winter. Oh yeah, I'm happy as can be and savouring every one of the 83 days left in the season.

If those garden pests aren't enough to thwart my winter growing , the other day we came home to a goat in the yard! Now I know some of you country folk live with goats and that's all fine and dandy for you but I live in the city. Well not quite - 9km from the CBD. So it was a bit of a shock to find a goat checking out the chooks when we stepped in the back gate. I'm blaming him for eating the one kale plant that was doing well.

Our neighbour Mr. P keeps a couple of goats on the vacant lot between us and we discovered they had been industriously working during the day on their escape plan to our greener pastures and had knocked out a couple of the fence palings.

The goat adventure did provide a fun distraction for the monkey boys though. They immediately donned weapons (cardboard roll and water sprayer) - and started a star wars goat battle, on lookout for the goat enemy through the gap in the fence. The pacifist in me has had absolutely no influence deterring the war games at my place.

Soup and Savoury Scone

2011-06-06T17:15:00.000+10:00

I've mentioned before that I love a good soup. And my monkeys do too. Except Monkey Man. To him food is fuel, but soup is not fuel enough. He won't complain if I dish it up mind you - I just know he's not that happy. Despite this, I've been serving up a bowl of soup for the family twice a week this winter. Mostly, because I know littlest monkey will eat it. He's such a fussy thing. In a meal he'll pick off all the green veggies no matter how small I cut them. Actually, he'll pick off the red, yellow and white veggies too. But soup he'll eat if it's blended and served with bread. My rule is he has to dip each mouthful of bread into the soup. And if he wants more bread he has to eat three big mouthfuls of the soup on its own before he gets it. Nothing like making a whole bunch of rules at mealtime for an enjoyable dining experience!

Anyway, I'm soup crazy at the moment. And I do like to make my Monkey Man happy too so I've been trying to cook bread with it to make a more substantial meal. All the monkeys make yum-yum noises when it's bread hot from the oven for dinner. Lately though, I've been too busy or disorganised to make bread as well as soup. But I've come up with an alternative. The savoury scone. A savoury scone only takes a few minutes to make and a few minutes to cook. It requires no sitting about waiting for a rise and it tastes delicious with bread. Now I'm no scone-maker. I've never even made real scones before but I've googled about and experimented with the savoury scone and come up with something that's easy, tastes good and is made from stuff you've already got - there's no way I'm heading to the shop for a tub of cream that I'll only use a tablespoon of. This scone is made with whatever herbs take your fancy from the garden and whatever cheese you have in the fridge. It's cooked like a big loaf of bread not cut into individual scone bits. A guaranteed winner with soup. Here 'tis.

Savoury Scone
• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• handful of herbs finely chopped
• 1 cup grated cheese

Mix the flour and salt together with the butter using your fingers to make a crumbly mixture. Combine with the herbs and cheese. Add the milk to make a soft sticky dough. Knead it for a teeny bit. Put some baking paper on a tray and flatten the dough onto it. Squish it until it's about 2 1/2 cm thick. Using a knife make indents in the dough where you'll cut it when cooked. (This step isn't necessary but it makes it easier at the table and looks nicer I reckon). Brush the dough with a little extra milk. Cook in a moderate oven for approx 25 minutes or until cooked through the middle.

Got Plans this Weekend?

2011-06-03T09:35:00.001+10:00

Who'll be joining me?
National Day of Action, Sunday June 5.
Family friendly rallies across Australia.
Go to GetUp for all the details in your state

Five Things to Love About Winter

2011-06-01T08:57:00.000+10:00

Who's whining about winter? Oh no, not me. I've turned over a new leaf!

It's true to say that in the past (actually immediate past - only just last week) I have been heard to whinge about the cold and the wet and about how much I don't like this season and when will it be warm again and bring on spring etc, etc ...
Well I've decided to change my attitude. It was Hazel who put the thought into my head. She's had a countdown to winter banner on her blog and every time I opened it I'd groan a little. And I was also a little shocked. There are people out there who actually like winter! What's there to like about winter? And that got me thinking.

I wasn't always an anti-winter person. It snuck up on me when I had kids. My first monkey was born on the last day of autumn and that winter completely went by in a blur. I have a photo of me all rugged up taking the new baby monkey for a walk down the street. I remember it well 'cos it was one of the first outings I'd done by myself with him. I love that photo. See how warm and happy and tired I look.

It was the following year that caused the trouble. Eldest Monkey Boy is an actual monkey. He climbs the walls.
See.
When he was a toddler I needed to take him outside every day and let him run about or he would drive me up the wall. Standing in the park every day in the drizzle and cold pushing monkeys on a swing is not much fun. And trying to think up things to do with a very active pre-schooler, who doesn't like crafty stuff over winter is rather draining. And I think that's how I developed my dislike for this season.

Now Melbourne doesn't even have a proper winter compared to some places you readers are coming from. Today, on our first day of winter we're heading for a top temperature of 19ºC. In some parts of the world you'd be stripping off to your singlet the day the temperature reached 19º.

Embrace all the seasons, Hazel admonished. So I'm giving it a go. I've put on my thinking cap and here are my top 5 things in favour of winter.

1. Winter Veggies
This will be the first year that I have had lots of veggies growing in winter. I've got kale, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, bok choy, brussell sprouts, silverbeet, snow peas, broad beans, garlic, onion and lettuce on the go now and more stuff planned.

2. Pincushion Hakea

There aren't a lot of flowers out in my garden over winter but this one is and it's a favourite. This is a great screening plant and it's fast growing. It attracts the birds and is right outside the window so I can get a good look at it but still stay warm.

3. My new arm warmers

These are made by a woman in my yoga class and I've grown to love them. They are really warm and made from recycled jumpers. Cool eh? She also makes tummy warmers and I'm thinking my belly needs one - that'd definitely stop my whining outside this winter. Link here if you want to see more.

4. Guilt Free Lazy Nights

It's definitely too cold to do anything after 8.00pm over winter. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Here's my favourite spot on a cold winter's night. Lazing by the fire with a book, ipad or TV. Also check out my matching purple favourite winter footwear in this snap.

5. Soup
I love soup. Never tire of it. It's a terrific meal for lunch or dinner. My monkeys will happily consume bucket loads of veggies when it's mushed up in a soup and served with bread. Soup is easy to make, it's low-fat (well, can be), it freezes well and you can pop it in the fridge for the next day and it'll taste even better. So to help you all embrace the seasons too, I've included one of my favourite soup recipes below. Apologies I would have put up a photo of the soup but my peppers are still sweating.

Bring on winter. And if you're reading this on the other side of the planet and are about to launch into summer - don't come boasting to me.

Roasted Red Capsicum Soup
• 5 red capsicums
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tins tomatoes
• 1 litre veggie stock
• 1 tsp olive oil

Roast the capsicums in the oven until the skins have blackened. Take them out, pop them in a plastic or paper bag and let them sweat. When they have cooled completely, peel off the skins and de-seed them. Cook the onion and garlic in a pot with the olive oil. Put the onion, garlic, tomatoes and capsicum into a food processor and whizz until smooth. Return to the pot along with the veggie stock. Stir until warm.

Weeds

2011-05-26T12:10:00.000+10:00

Weeds I Know and Don't Love.
A photographic journey through my weedy garden.

Weeds in the baby tears...

... and in the fern.

Weeds around the pond.

Pretty jonquils in a mulch of weeds.

Weeds climbing up the Kangaroo paw.

Weeds everywhere in the broad bean bed.

I can't tell the leeks from the weeds.

And growing up the fence in the chook shed... giant weeds. You'd think the chooks would help me out a bit but clearly they're much too well fed.

Weeds look bad.
They suck the nutrients from the soil and inhibit the growth of nearby plants.
Weeds hide sneaky little pests like slugs and snails that come and eat my seedlings overnight.
Weeding is a never ending, mind-numbing chore that I know I must do - but when the weather is gloomy I feel the same. Instead, I'm leaving my fingerless gloves on and my gardening gloves remain in the shed. I sit on the heating vent, look out to the grey and curse myself for the jobs out there I really ought to do.

I have confessed before to being a tad lazy and have just confirmed this with photographic evidence of the current state of things in my patch. I don't believe in magic and know I will have to do some work, but surely you gardeners out in blog-world have some tricks you can pass on to me. I used to mark year 12 exams and the only way I could get through the torturous hours in that week was to reward myself with a piece of chocolate after completing every five. I don't think that'll work for me with these weeds. How do you deal with your weeds when they're out of control?

To Annual or Perennial and Things I Don't Much Like

2011-05-23T12:57:00.000+10:00

Eggplant - Slim Jim

I don't like to pull up living plants. I don't like to thin out seedlings. And I don't like to pull out weeds (but that's 'cos I'm lazy, not 'cos I have some strange love for weeds).

So it is with reluctance today that I pull up my eggplant plants. I'd read that you can grow them as perennials. To be honest, I'm such a novice, dodgy gardener that I had to google "annual" and "perennial" just to make sure I knew what was what this morning. Then I googled eggplant and annual and discovered that they'll probably only keep if you have warm winters. I don't think we qualify. I'm already sporting my red scarf and fingerless gloves and grizzling about Melbourne weather... and it's not even Winter yet. While I'm onto things I don't like, that's another one - Winter. Don't like it. So much so that I'm tempted to stop reading one of my favourite bloggers Hazel who has a countdown to Winter on her header at the moment. Grrr. Makes me grumpy. Now I know some of you international visitors are rolling your eyes and tsking your tongues at my whining and moaning. I know, I don't even know what Winter is... 15º is not actually cold... and I've only ever seen snow three times in my life! So I'd better stop before too many of you decide to stop reading and I have to re-name myself The Grizzler.

Back to the eggplant plants - I will pull them out. But look at them - they're so pretty. And they're still alive. Such a pity but out they must come. These are little skinny ones called slim jim grown from a packet of Diggers' seeds. Probably, a few of these eggplants needed some more time to grow but given the cold that's not going to happen. Reminder to self for next year to plant more of them and to plant them earlier. Anyway, today I snipped them off and decided to put them in a pot for lunch. Actually, what I really wanted to do was fry them but I knew I'd need to use loads of olive oil. Nothing like an eggplant to suck up the oil. I had a big slice of apple pie with double cream last night so I've decided I'd better go easy on the kilojoules this week. Instead, I sauteed them in a bit of veggie stock and added leftover roast veggies. I was about to take a photo but decided it all looked a bit grey. Those eggplants definitely looked better uncooked. So I fancied it all up with some chopped parsley. Nothing like a garnish to make you look like a masterchef.

Chilli plants

Now, I will bring myself to pull up the eggplants but I will not touch these chilli plants. They are in a nice warm spot and surely can survive a Melbourne Winter.

Eggplant Stew with Leftover Roast Veggies
• Eggplant, chopped (I used about 10 slim jims but 1 big one will do)
• 1 big tomato, chopped
• a little stock
• 30g low fat feta, crumbled/chopped
• leftover roast veggies
• parsley, finely chopped
• sourdough toast to serve

Saute the eggplant in a pot with a little stock until soft. Add the chopped tomato and leftover roast veggies. Cook stirring for a couple of minutes. Add the crumbled feta and parsley and stir through. Serve with a piece of sourdough toast.

On Cake, Spaetzle and Eurovision Glitz

2011-05-17T12:24:00.000+10:00

We had a Eurovision party on the weekend. We've been doing this annually for five years now and it's a highlight of our social calendar. Not that I have much of a social calendar mind you. Most Saturday night's I find myself alone sitting in the indent on the couch watching trash TV, reading blogs and playing bejeweled. (Yep, boo-hoo bring on the violin strings. Never marry a musician or have kids). But Sunday night party we did. Usually, I'm not one for costume parties but Eurovision is such an easy dress-up that we encourage our guests to make an effort with their attire. Trashy and glittery. This year I toned down the trash and vamped up the glitter. I wasn't too keen to reveal my thighs so I opted for a long, sparkly frock from Savers. And I brushed my hair which is a shock. My hair is curly and only gets a weekly de-tangle brush with loads of conditioner under the shower. A dry brush results in a mountain of fuzz - which is big even by Eurovision standards. And of course I applied loads of make-up.

Monkey Man didn't need to hunt the op-shops for his costume. He has several wardrobes full of stage clothes. If you haven't already figured it out, Monkey Man doesn't like to throw away anything. And that goes doubly for clothes. Every item he has ever worn is hanging in the wardrobe. He has the biggest collection of political t-shirts in the country. And he has a lot of very tacky, sequined suits. This year he opted for the white suit with a silver, sparkle shirt open to the navel.

Now I'm very tempted to post photos of ourselves but I fear future repercussions. I know that youngsters nowadays (adopting nana voice now) give no thought to what they publish on the internet and how embarrassed they'll feel when they grow up, but I am a grown up. I also fear I may need to do a lot of photoshopping to hide the bulges the dress revealed so I might just give you a hint of the glitz from our cozzies. More of a hint from Monkey Man and just a sliver of a hint of my hunched back and fuzzy hair...

We have a friend who's a roadie and he loaned us a big screen and projector. So watching Eurovision with us was equivalent to watching the footy grand final on the big screen at Federation Square. But in our lounge room and with much more entertainment... and of course there was food.

Each year when voting starts I say a little prayer for Italy to win. Or Greece or Spain or some country with food that I know I can do. But almost every year I am thwarted by some dreadfully cold country with sausage and fish as their national dish - which is fine if you're a meat-eater but I make vegetarian food. And sometimes it gets a bit tricky trying to find vegetarian party food from the host country of Eurovision.

Fortunately, this year Germany was hosting and that's not so bad. Monkey Man spent ten years living in Germany so you think he'd be a help. But he wasn't. All he did was correct my pronunciation. So after several night's of googling I decided on the menu. I bought pretzels (of course). Could've made them but ran out of time and motivation. Pumpernickel rounds with toppings, a big lump of the stinkiest cheese I've ever touched (tilsiter) and strawberries. Monkey Man assured me that when he lived in Germany he once tended a big strawberry patch. I find this hard to believe given Monkey Man's lack of gardening skill but I was happy to put strawberries on the menu as they look and taste good on a party platter. I considered putting out the saukraut we'd bought at the market but decided I was wasting my time. I also made kartotoffel kroketten (fried potato balls) and spaetzle. Our friend Sabina taught me how to make this last year when she was here on a holiday. It was definitely the hit of the night. Extreme comfort food. Layers of home-made little egg noodles and loads of cheese topped with caramelised onions. I reckon I ate four plates full in between several glasses of bubbly. Luckily I did this after I'd squeezed into the sparkle frock not before 'cos this dish is packed with kilojoules and naturally tastes de-lish.

This blog of course is supposed to be about things I am growing and food I am making from the garden. So let me tell you about the item on the menu from the garden - plum kuchen (cake). I had frozen a couple of containers of plums in syrup after our summer crop and I de-frosted some for this recipe. The instructions for making the cake I got from this website. It was yummo, straight from the oven and topped with cream. A sweet de-lish treat after all that potatoey, buttery, cheesy, noodley food.

Plum Kuchen. Apologies for the not so good photo. I may have had a few too many glasses of bubbly by this stage.

So now I am planning next year's event. Italy came second. Drats. I'm looking for food from Azerbaijan. No idea!

Oi Blogger! What'd You Do with my Post?

2011-05-16T10:00:00.000+10:00

On Friday, like many people I believe, I was locked out of blogger. Couldn't get in at all. Oh I could see my blog there all right, but I couldn't get onto my dashboard or check my stats or sign in or write a new post. And it was a wee bit annoying. But not as annoying as it was the next day when I could get back in but discovered that my last post and all the comments had disappeared into the blogosphere!

Lucky, the draft of it was still there. I just needed to make a few additions and add some pics and it's now back to what it was originally I think. So apologies to all of you who have already read the post below and got confused and read it again. And double apologies to all of you who have already read and commented because all of your comments are somewhere out there in cyberspace.

The Dirty Chook Bott

2011-05-16T09:50:00.000+10:00

If you're reading this blog over a nice cup of tea and a biscuit, I suggest you don't. 'Cos I'm about to chat to you about my chook's bottom and a big lump of stinky chook poo that had accumulated there.

Poor Puff. Or Fluff. I still can't tell them apart. She had been going about with a dirty bottom for a couple of days and I hadn't cleaned her up. But her bottom did look quite dirty. So I picked her up, wrapped her in an old towel, put on some gloves and took her inside to the laundry trough. And then I upended her to inspect the damage. Pooey! I wonder if this is common with silkies? I'd heard about a condition called pasty butt in young chicks but didn't think this affected older chickens. I did once own a chinchilla cat (are you seeing a pattern here with me and fluffy pets?) and she did sometimes need her rear end fluff trimmed. Mind you she used to sleep on my bed so you'd be wanting to keep her rear free in case any nasties were left on your pillow. Anyway, Fluff/Puff's bott was not a pretty sight. But luckily I'm quite the pet-bott-cleaning expert and luckily we have a very effective laundry hose. So I set to work cleaning her up and quickly managed to wash away most of the offending matter. But one spot seemed to be taking quite a while. And then I realised that I was directing the hose and swooshing away with my gloved hand on her skin not chook poo. Silkie chickens have black skin. I'd forgotten. Poor Fluff/Puff.

Once the washing torment was over I took her to the bathroom and gave her a blow dry. Which made us all laugh that I was turning the bathroom into a pampering silkie salon. But I didn't want her to catch a chill when she went back outside.

She didn't complain at all about the whole ordeal. In fact she sat still and gave a few little cluck clucks as per usual. But I was feeling a little worried and guilty that I ought to have cleaned her up earlier and that maybe it was a sign of illness or maybe I'd have to make this a regular routine. So I googled about a bit and discovered some disturbing things about humans.

www.indoorducks.com

Look! You can buy shoes for your indoor pet chooks so they won't slip about on your polished floor boards. They even supply shoes especially designed for silkies (silkies you know apart from the fluff that sets them apart, have an extra toe).

www.indoorducks.com

And look, some people make nappies for their chickens so they can wander about inside and instead of making a mess on your floor, make a mess on their own botts. This one is designed for a duck and comes in a range of bright spandexy colours.

And lastly, look! Famous people have poor pet silkies that they keep alone, dress up and carry about as accessories!

Oh dear. Now I know my chooks are a bit spoilt - and one of them just enjoyed a blow dry ... but really!

One Green Capsicum

2011-05-10T15:02:00.000+10:00

I attempted to grow a few capsicum plants over summer and was quite unsuccessful. Only two survived. Of those two, only one grew a capsicum. One green capsicum. I allowed that green capsicum to grow to a reasonable size and then I let it hang on the bush. For weeks. It's now getting close to the end of Autumn and getting colder here in Melbourne. I was waiting for that green capsicum to change colour to red but it never did. Last week I was having a little looksie at it and the whole branch twisted off in my hand. So then I thought I'd have a go at sitting it on my windowsill in the hope that some sun might turn it red. But it hasn't. I hate green capsicum.

According to my sister the nutritionist, capsicum is an excellent source of vitamin C. She also tells me that red capsicum has nearly twice the amount of vitamin C compared to green capsicum. Another reason to hate green capsicum I reckon. If you have to endure the taste of a green capsicum you want to know that it's better for you - but it's not!

How come roasted red capsicums are so delicious and I can think of a bezillion things to do with them but not one thing appeals when it comes to its green counterpart? I've checked out my Stephanie Alexander kitchen garden bible and of course she has quite a few yummy offerings by way of red but nothing green. I have a whopper Indian cookbook and there are a few curry recipes there but they require more than one green capsicum and I am definitely not buying another. Besides, I doubt a green capsicum curry would taste good. I could chop it up and chuck it in a fried rice and serve it to the monkeys. But I'll bet both the little monkeys would pick out every bit of green. They don't like green capsicum either.

So what to do with this one green capsicum before it withers and gets fed to the worms? Your suggestions greatly appreciated (although possibly I will turn my nose up at most of them!).

NutriNic says: "Capsicum is a good source of flavonoids which are antioxidants found in most fruit and vegetables. They help prevent oxidation in the tissues and mop up free radicals. Capsicum is also an excellent source of vitamin C, red capsicum has nearly twice the amount of vitamin C than green capsicum, green capsicum contains more vitamin C than oranges."

Oh, and just for your information, NutriNic is not a fan of capsicum either - red or green.

The two surviving capsicum plants

Before and After

2011-05-05T12:27:00.001+10:00

I do so love having a squiz at people's gardens. Especially if there are before and after shots. I follow Sweet Bean's blog and she sometimes features other people's gardens before and after. And I remember when Enchanted Moments gave a tour of her garden. And Missy and at the Greening of Gavin. And I'd been thinking that I should do that - a tour of the garden. Or, even better a before and after tour.

I am actually rather proud of the transformation I've made in the backyard. When I first moved in with Monkey Man, he'd been here about ten years. The block had been owned by an old Polish woman who died. She'd planted a plum, avocado (don't get excited it never fruits) and three lemon trees and had a whole bunch of old chook sheds along the garden fence. She obviously loved her garden. But I'm afraid by the time Monkey Man had it for ten years and then I came along, it was a mess. Nothing but cooch grass and a few established trees. And then I rather hastily got pregnant and before I knew it the back room had been knocked down, we were extending and the backyard was a junk yard. It remained that way for quite a few years - as did our house. Not the greatest or safest environment for Eldest Monkey Boy to toddle about in. Check out these snaps.

Now, before I go any further, let me explain to you the trouble I have been to this morning to dig up these old photos. Following our renovation, our house is now comfortable, but it's not finished. Remember this post? There is a room upstairs that is one day supposed to be our bedroom, but for the past eight years (yep that's how long we've been renovating so far) it's been our junk room. Hidden from sight by a nailed up bit of material, behind which lurks this...

Going in here makes me feel a little ill and a lot overwhelmed. Piled high with boxes of stuff that I'm sure we don't need. Not just our stuff, but stuff from Monkey Man's father who passed away two years ago and Monkey Man's mother who passed away sixteen years ago. And there are boxes and boxes of photos. I don't know about you, but once I start looking through boxes of photos I find it hard to stop. And photos from your lover's old life are sad but compelling. Why couldn't I have known Monkey Man when he was in his 20s and travelling the world? Is that another girlfriend? Just how many girlfriends did he have? Look how much fun he's having. How old is he now? How many years have I lived? How much longer do I have? Death anxiety... death anxiety... Quick get me out of this room!

That's probably enough insight into my mind-wanderings for one blog post. Back to the garden.

I was tempted to save my before and after shots until Spring or Summer when the garden is looking its best. To at least photograph it when the sun was shining, after the grass had been freshly whipper-snippered and after a bit of a weed and tidy up. But I haven't. You know I'm impatient and lazy so I did none of those things. I decided to show it warts and weeds and all and on a grey day. So here's a little tour of my imperfect, messy but transforming garden.

This is the first patch that I dug in the yard when Eldest Monkey Boy was about 6 months old. I love ferns and this spot is right outside the back window and shaded all year. We've had such a mild Summer that the carpet of baby tears didn't die back at all and it's creeping out everywhere. In the foreground is the pond we made in December. You can see the plants have grown. The water is covered in duck weed and I have no idea if those fish are still in there but I still like it. Now notice to the left of the pond - lots of weeds. And look at the back right corner. That's a junk and storage pile down the side of the house - plumbing pipes, timber, extra chairs, old doors. Oh, and you can also see that the architraves around the windows and doors are only half painted. Sigh. I really ought to be painting instead of anxiously rummaging through old photos and blogging.

This is the view from beside the fernery at the back door.

And here's a bit more of the back taken from in front of the table. Check out how much that protea has grown. Look back to the second before photo when Monkey Boy was a toddler, he's standing beside it there. I got the big, colourful flag last month from the Melbourne Garden Show. It's probably a bit gaudy but it'll look better when the veggies start growing up around it. The two big sticks are from a tree that died out the front. I convinced Monkey Man that an arbour to walk through to the second part of the garden was a good idea and he came up with this suggestion. Unfortunately, nothing I've yet planted will grow up it. Every creeper seems to die. Any suggestions? You can just make out the chook run along the back fence and under the trampoline. They also are free to wander about to the right of the trampoline but they don't. I have no idea what's wrong with them because there is a lot of grass / weeds that I know they like to eat. I think they like the security of a roof over their heads and are too timid to venture to open space. Either that or they're stupid and can't remember how to get there.

This is not a very attractive shot but in an effort to be accurate and honest I'll show you anyway. It's taken from the back door and looking to the right. Where those pots are is the herb garden. Usually there are also a bunch of veggies growing there but I recently dug up my failed pumpkin vine so it's looking a bit bare. If you look closely you can see the teapot hanging from the lemon tree. This is the same teapot that Eldest Monkey Boy was toddling about with six or so years ago in the first before photo.

And lastly, here's the view from beside the flag looking up to the house. The veggie patches are bare but I did notice a couple of broad bean and snow pea shoots just poking their heads through the straw. And yep, that is how I leave the hose. No careful rolling and tidying in my back yard I'm afraid.

Ooooh, Oooooh... Eggs!

2011-05-01T17:09:00.000+10:00

This morning I nearly jumped out of my dressing gown with excitement ... two eggs in the nesting box!

I'd been wondering the last few weeks when these chickens would start laying some eggs and have been checking their box periodically. I think I've done my sums correctly and they are now five and a half months old. Recently though, I'd almost forgotten that they were not intended as ornamental, entertaining fluff-balls but were in fact meant to be put to work producing food for us.

Then this morning, things were a little odd.

I filled their water and feeder and opened the gate so they could have a wander, but they stayed put in their coop. Indie and Beverly were still on the ladder which leads to their night time quarters. Which was odd. Usually they all squabble and cluck and rush out as soon as I open the gate. Except Indie who enjoys a sit on the perch for a bit longer and then sprints to join the others. So I was inspired to check the nesting box. Sure enough, two eggs.

I quickly raced inside, grabbed the camera and shouted to the monkeys to come look.

Here they are collecting our first eggs.

Now the eggs were a tad on the small side as I had been warned. 4.5cm long to be precise. Despite their weeny size, both the Monkeys immediately wanted egg on toast for breakfast and I was happy to oblige. Until Littlest Monkey changed his mind and refused to get dressed or have breakfast. As he tends to do. But that was great because it meant the entire other 4.5cm egg was then left all to me.

Eldest Monkey Boy had scrambled egg on toast, while I had a fried egg with mushies, silverbeet and chives. Eldest Monkey claimed his to be the best scrambled egg ever. "Sweeter than normal eggs" he said. To be honest I could not taste the difference, but I was nevertheless super-stoked to be eating our first little home grown goog.

Good girls. I wonder which of you is responsible?

Wonky's Mosaic

2011-04-28T11:46:00.000+10:00

Well, as promised, I got to work over these past couple of days and made a memorial for departed Wonky. The first few nights my bottom remained as usual in its indent on the couch by the fire, my ear on the trash TV and my finger on the ipad bejewls. Old night time addictions are hard to break. But on Tuesday afternoon Eldest Monkey Boy desperately wanted to pay a visit to the Eureka Tower and Littlest Monkey Boy desperately didn't. So our family went our separate ways and Littlest Monkey Boy and I got down to some mosaic-making.

Now Ali and Shangri La were keen for me to do a little tutorial on how to mosaic. And I am eager to satisfy at least two people who may be reading this blog. But I've warned you I am a complete novice - I'm even more of a novice mosaicer than gardener. But I'm a bit like Monkey Man - I'll give things a go. Monkey Man has taught me a few things actually. A combination of tightness with money, delusion and healthy ego has convinced Monkey Man that it's possible to do almost anything yourself and he'd much rather do that than pay a professional. He's installed our ducted heating, plastered, plumbed, floorboarded... he even put together our internal staircase from kit. That took quite a few days of cursing. But it hasn't fallen down yet. Unlike the plaster which is cracking all over the place. I did put my foot down when he said he'd make our curtains - he can't thread a needle, let alone operate a sewing machine.

So Littlest Monkey Boy was keen to work on the mosaic stepping stone for Wonky. I suggested we have his name "Wonky" and then maybe some wonky designs or a chicken foot. I reckon I could draw a chook foot. But Littlest Monkey was having none of it. Nope there had to be a picture of an actual chicken - a chicken that looked like Wonky. I can't draw. And I certainly can't draw chickens. But Littlest Monkey got out a pencil and paper and drew a very good picture of a chicken. I was impressed. And, I thought, if all of you out in blogworld see this mosaic but know that a 6 year old has had a hand in it they won't judge it so harshly. No need to feel quite so ashamed if it looks crappy. So I was inspired and gushing with praise as we made a pencilled drawing of the chook on the cement block. And then I remembered that Wonky probably was actually a rooster so we added more pronounced rooster bits and decided on the colours that we'd use on our mosaic. In retrospect we really should have used a lighter colour (not dark green) as the background to contrast with Wonky's blackness but Littlest Monkey was adamant that it had to be green for grass.

Now here's a pic of the equipment we used to mosaic. As I've said, I'm no professional and everything I've learnt I've learnt from google so if I've got things wrong and you reckon this stone will fall apart or that I should have used super glue or something, please let me down gently.

I bought this stepping stone from Bunnings for a couple of dollars. The coloured mosaic glass tiles were not cheap. It would be much better to have a lovely collection of old bits of tiles or broken china and stuff. But I haven't collected much yet. I have managed some broken bits of mirror and these we used but in the meantime this is a fairly expensive hobby as I have resorted to buying specially made bits of tile that you can get at craft or hardware shops. These do have the advantage however of being all the same width which makes things easier and you get an even stepping stone. I got a tile cutter which also makes things easier and is safer with littlies but you could just smash things up with a hammer I think. I used adhesive and grout that we had for tiling the bathroom. Not sure if this is the best for mosaic outdoor stepping stones but that's what was used.

I snipped the tiles into little bits, spread some adhesive on a section of the mosaic with a chopstick and Littlest Monkey got to work attaching bits of tile. Occasionally I re-adjusted tiles to move them closer together or fill the gaps or make the edges straight but mostly I didn't need to intervene too much. In fact, I was surprised at just how patient he was. Littlest Monkey Boy yak-yaked away while he worked and only got tired of it after about an hour when he started taking regular trampoline breaks. This first stage from design to last stick of a tile took two hours.

The next day Littlest Monkey got fed up and left me to finish off. I mixed up some grout and rubbed it all over the tiles filling all the gaps. I got a dry rag and then rubbed the tiles clean. This might sound obvious (unless you're a bit thick like me) but don't leave it to dry before you rub off. I did in my first mosaic attempt and of course the grout was impossible to remove. I then left it to dry overnight. The next day I popped it into the ground on the spot where Wonky is buried behind the chook shed and in front of a few chilli plants. You'll notice in the photo that I've left a few weeds growing nearby - I'm industrious only to a point.

Now if you'd like to see some really good mosaics pop over to Meg & Mum's blog as recommended by Jeanetteanne I was sure to do this after I'd finished our Wonky project so that I didn't get too intimidated.

Planting & Digging. Companions, Worms and Train Museums.

2011-04-26T09:14:00.000+10:00

Oh yeah, it's been a buzzy hive of diggin' industry in my patch these past few days. And when Monkey Man suggested we take the Monkey Boys to the train museum yesterday afternoon I declined the kind offer with the comment that I would rather poke both eyes out with a bamboo gardening stake than spend another hour at that train museum. Excuse my generalisation but what is it about the male species and trains? How come boys and grown men enjoy looking at old trains so much? Personally, my eyes glaze over and I start filling my head with to do lists and that night's dinner plans after 10 minutes. Climbed one rusty old train, climbed them all. But off to the train museum they went leaving me to finish my gardening jobs.

Bamboo stakes for soon to emerge snow peas and bok choy seedlings in between.

Over the past few days I've sown two beds of broad bean and snow pea seeds and made lovely bamboo tripods to support them when they grow. Hopefully I've dug them in well enough so they won't fall down in a wind this year. Monkey Man watched me sow these seeds yesterday and he commented that my blogging friend from the UK (Mark) would certainly disapprove of the haphazard way I was scattering and poking those seeds about. But that's the way I do things here.

Garlic with newly planted disappearing leek behind.

I've planted a whole bunch of leeks in the rest of the bed that houses the garlic. As soon as I laid some mulch over them they pretty much disappeared so I hope they're still there. I planted out the rest of the brassicas garden bed with purple cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli and celery and kale. Not sure what was going on in my head when I bought all those purple seeds. It is my favourite colour but I'm already wishing for a lovely creamy coloured cauli. Hopefully, the dreaded white cabbage moths will go away and this bed will survive because I do love to make cauliflower soup... although I'm not so sure purple soup will pass muster with the monkeys.

Is that the purple cauli or broccoli? Can't remember but it surely is purple.

In the narrow strip in front of the chook trampoline run I planted some brown onions and more rainbow silverbeet. Those fluffy little mischief-makers had better keep to their own side of the fence this time. I know they love silverbeet and I've promised them some rationed rainbow leaves if they promise not to jump the fence again.

And finally, I popped a few bok choy seedlings in a bit of patch with the snow peas. Now apart from the brassicas bed I didn't bother to find out which veg should and shouldn't be planted with which. I've been reading Kebun Malay-Kadazan girls blog and she's doing lots of interesting companion planting experiments at her place. But being a novice, I can't keep all those companion facts in my head. And I am much too disorganised and lazy to do a serious plan about where things are going. I just kneel down and start digging my seedlings in. And if I run out of space I hunt out another spot somewhere else.

One thing that did surprise and excite me was the fact that I discovered quite a few wriggly worms as I was digging about. Remember a few weeks ago when I dug these new patches and I lamented the lack of worms and worried that maybe my chook worming treatment had killed them all off? Well you experts out there in blog land were right - not that I ever doubted you of course! The patches just needed to be mulched and sure enough along came the worms - lots of them. So I finished every thing off with a seaweed feed (my remedy for all things plant) and a top up mulch.

Postscript: if you live in Melbourne and were inspired to take a visit to the train museum after reading this post. Sorry but they discovered that it's closed for maintenance and no sign of when it will re-open.

Farewell Wonky

2011-04-24T09:39:00.000+10:00

Wonky

We've been on a little holiday during the week. While we were away we had some visiting friends house-sitting for us. Usually when I return from a holiday the house looks like a bit of a bomb has hit - and even more so by the time we dump our bags and monkey toys. But this time it wasn't so bad. I'd been careful to do a turbo tidy and leave the house in a respectable-ish state for our guests. On return though, there was a surprise. A rather enormous pile of washed, dried and folded laundry sitting by the back window. They had washed every single dirty towel, sheet and underpant I had piled up in the laundry! Good house guests eh?! Last time they stayed they convinced my Monkeys to help them clean the fridge - inside and out. I took photos of that one.

Unfortunately, while we were away, they also performed an even less pleasant job. They found Wonky our lame chicken dead one morning. I'm pretty sure Wonky was a rooster actually. He'd once made a half-hearted attempt at crowing from his seated position and he had quite a pronounced coxcomb on his head. He'd been progressively getting worse as the weather got colder and spent most of the last couple of weeks stationary. Our house-sitting friends buried him for us behind the chook shed.

The Monkeys and I have been thinking that we might make a little memorial for Wonky in the garden. I think a mosaic stepping stone where he's buried would be a good idea. I've only just learnt to mosaic and have been planning quite a few of these stepping stones around the chook shed. Here's a pic of my first attempt.

Now last week Ali from Mud Pie asked me to do a little tutorial here when I mosaic the old garden washing machine. I'm not sure when I'll get 'round to that now - it feels like a big job. But a little stepping stone, that I can manage. And if I commit to it here I know I will have to follow through. So I'll give the TV and my bejewelled addiction a miss for a couple of nights and get cracking on this job. I may even get started today if I can persuade the little Monkeys away from the bucket-load of chocolate the bloody Easter Bunny hid in the garden for them. I'm warning you now though that I'm no artist and I learnt to mosaic from the internet - so don't go getting over-excited.

I wonder what other things people have done to remember pets who have died?

Garden Art

2011-04-16T13:33:00.001+10:00

I was feeling a bit arty-farty this morning.

My Littlest Monkey is quite arty-farty. He's always constructing things with feathers and glitter and stones. He reckons he's going to be an artist when he grows up. Or an inventor. What got me going today was the fact that I've dug up my summer veggies and there's a blank canvas happening in the patches. Everything's looking a bit bare so I thought I might start on some of the projects I'd been planning for a while.

First up I got out the glue gun and stuck some broken mirror and coloured stones onto an old bit of piping I found in the garden months ago. I've been using these stones with great success in my drama classes for magic spells and messages left from fairies, so I was a little hesitant about sticking them permanently in my patch but I can always get more from the $2 shop. This is what I came up with.

Now our garden is the messy sort. You may not be able to tell from my snaps because I'm careful about the angles and use close ups and avoid the weeds so that I can leave you with a false good impression. But trust me it's usually a mess. When some friends visit they tell me with no regard for my feelings that my garden looks much better in this blog than in real life! Given that it's the messy, overgrown type of garden I think it only appropriate that I use old bits that might be considered rubbish by some, as decorative items. So after the pipe-sticking, I picked up the monkeys' pile of outdoor toys and put them in their box. Amongst them were some old saucepans and lids that they'd been using in the sandpit. We no longer have a sandpit so I thought I'd hang the pots on the fence near my herbs. And I hung an old kettle from the lemon tree.

There's another project I have planned and that involves this old washing machine. It was hidden away down the side of the house but I persuaded Monkey Man to move it beside the pond a few weeks ago. It was heavy and he wasn't too impressed but I nagged enough and now it's in the right spot. I filled it with water and have plans to put a bunch of water plants in it. And then I think I'll attempt a mosaic on the outside. What do you think? Oh, and if you look behind this washer you'll see that it's in one of the messiest parts of the garden. Perhaps making a feature of it will inspire me to clean up - or perhaps it will just distract the viewers eye to the sparkly mosaic bits instead of the messy rubbishy bits.

Digging Potatoes is Just Like an Easter Egg Hunt!

2011-04-14T16:39:00.000+10:00

I'd read that kids love potato digging and that they're such a good veggie for them to grow. Frankly, nothing I've grown has truly captured the imagination of my monkeys. They'll humour me for a minute or two and are more likely to eat something they've picked themselves from the garden but nothing outside excites them as much as a roll and tumble on the trampoline.

So I did need to do a bit of cajoling to get them out with me digging the potatoes yesterday. But once we started we had fun.

"This is just like an Easter egg hunt, isn't it!" I enthused.

Neither of the monkey boys answered, so I figure it's safe to assume that yes it is just as much fun as hunting for chocolate. And with the added bonus of no crazy-screaming-fight-chase that generally follows a chocolate-feed.

You're supposed to wait for the foliage on the potatoes to die off before digging them up but we didn't. The rellies were coming 'round for Monkey Boy's birthday lunch and crunchy, roast potatoes were on the menu. Some of these potatoes were way too small to cook and really should have been left in the ground to grow some more but I have plans for this bit of patch. We ended up throwing the teeny ones to the chooks who were hanging about. We also found a couple of green caterpillars and chucked them to the chooks too. That was entertaining.

Now I've posted before about how much nicer fresh potatoes from the garden are. You really can feel a different crunch when you cut them up. And the roast potatoes we had today were soft and delish. Every single one got eaten. I was even tempted to eat the one that was retrieved from under the table during clean up but managed to control myself.

So in MasterChef tradition I will give you my top 3 tips for roasting potatoes.

1. Always prepare more potatoes than you think you'll need, they will get eaten.

2. Boil or steam the potatoes first.

3. Roast them with rosemary, sea salt, olive oil and butter.

Yummy.

Dino Parties, the Last of the Summer Veggies and Things Designed to Induce a Vomit

2011-04-10T19:53:00.000+10:00

Today we celebrated Littlest Monkey's 6th birthday with a dinosaur party for his friends. I must confess that although I am a teacher and although I do love an event, the children's at-home party no longer holds the same appeal as it once did. There was a time when I quite enjoyed planning the games and menu and such. But in the lead up to this party my shoulders felt heavier. The thought of 12 little dinosaurs stomping through the house and garden brought a rather pronounced furrow to my brow. It's so much bloody work to organise a kids' party. But the real problem, I realised, is that I've become a little too precious about my garden. When lots of little feet run about, I expect lots of veggie seedlings and new plants and growing bulbs to get squished. But what is the point of having a garden if you can't enjoy it with kids? Anyway, I needn't have worried because there were no casualties and we all had a great time.

For food I made sausage rolls with veggies and herbs (see I'm vegetarian but I can do meat if I scrunch my nose up while handling), pita crisps and carrot dip and a big fruit platter. I bought little sausages with dinner rolls and spinach and cheese triangles. And I used up the last of the summer garden veggies on these little pikelets topped with cream cheese and halved cherry tomatoes.

I try to put out veggies and fruit and something with a bit of nutrient at a party. Eldest Monkey Boy once came home from a "sports" party that served up nothing but junk - including red gatorade (for 5 year olds!). Monkey Man was in charge that day and let him go for his life. When Eldest Monkey Boy came home he immediately spewed the lot up in the hall - a big red stream of sugar and salt. And I had to clean up because Monkey Man was late for work. Hmm... I think we all learnt a lesson after that one.

Anyway, much excitement was elicited at our party today when this volcano cake came out. I have a couple of party cake books and the little monkeys love to flick through them each year and choose a cake for their party. And this was their choice.

Yep, that's one ginormous chocolate crackle cake.
I generally try to minimise the sweet stuff at our place but Littlest Monkey Boy looooves chocolate. Eldest Monkey Boy was two years old before he tried his first tim tam and after he would not stop jumping up and down on his bed. We just closed the door and hoped he'd wear himself down but 30 minutes later he was still at it. Similarly, sugar goes straight to Littlest Monkeys head. But it is his birthday and I thought I ought not be a grouch.

I've never made chocolate crackles before so I never knew just how much crap goes into the making of one. But a wee crackle in a patty case is one thing - contemplate the making of a volcano chocolate crackle. And then contemplate the amount of copha and icing sugar I poured into that thing. I can assure you that making that cake was nausea inducing. But made it I did and serve it I did. And not a spew was had - not in our house anyway.

Check out the blissful look on Little Monkey's face. Tonight he said he'd had the best day of his life.

Should I Persist with These Pumpkins?

2011-04-07T13:13:00.000+10:00

pumpkin vine

I threw some Digger's Heirloom pumpkin seeds in a patch of spare soil I had late last year. Or maybe it was in January, I really can't remember when. The corn seeds before them had failed to germinate - or maybe they did poke a head through but were quickly munched. Anyway, I thought I'd try my hand at growing pumpkin.

I'd been getting a few lovely flowers and I noticed some bees buzzing about.

And the vine is of course quite massive and hides the view from the lounge window of our tatty undies hanging on the clothes line which is a good thing. It's also been crawling its tendrils onto my clothes line and has had to be ripped back a bit. But nevertheless I was expecting great things from this vine. A few months ago I bought a ravioli mould and I've been dreaming of feeding the monkeys pumpkin ravioli and pumpkin soup and pumpkin chips in tempura batter.

But look what's been happening to the fruit.

Is it because I put the seeds in too late?

I know pumpkins like a lot of compost and they certainly haven't been mollycoddled by me - a bit of a seaweed feed and that's been it. Should I have treated them a bit better?

And lastly, all you experts out there in blogworld, should I give up now, rip this vine out and prepare the soil for something new? Or should I wait a few more weeks in the hope that one of these pumpkins will turn into a pumpkin?

Flesh-Eating Plants

2011-04-04T09:43:00.001+10:00

Like a few other bloggers I've been reading, I visited the Melbourne Garden Show during the week. I've done this for the past few years. Love it. And last week, like the years before, I came home with a new carnivorous plant for my kitchen windowsill. I know this blog is supposed to be about edible things I'm growing and cooking but I'll make an exception today because these plants go in my kitchen garden - the kitchen windowsill.

The latest one - dunno its name

Aren't they beautiful, freaky, weird and wonderful? This latest one has teeny fuzzy glowy bits that attract little, flying insects that then get stuck. It looks beautiful on the windowsill in the late afternoon with its fairydrops shimmering in the light. In typical me style, I've thrown away the tag and wouldn't have a clue what the names of any of these plants are. I just call them my meat-eaters. Is it a little bit wrong for a vegetarian to love flesh-eating plants so?

Venus FlyTrap

Some of them have a smell that attracts the insects and they fly down and then get stuck and can't fly out. This Venus FlyTrap slowly closes its jaws on the unsuspecting fly.

They do require some special conditions. A bright, sunny spot with several hours of direct sunlight is best. Apparently, the chlorine in tap water isn't good for them so mine only get water from the tank. And they need to be kept wet - mine sit in bowls of water. During Winter they're dormant and most of the leaves die so it's best to chop them back. And then in Spring, some of them grow beautiful, big flowers.

I do enjoy looking at these plants as I do the dishes or cook and it distracts me from the other bits of my kitchen that I don't enjoy looking at. Like the pantry that still has no door on it, or the plaster on the walls that haven't been sanded and finished off or painted. Or the windowsill itself that also hasn't been painted. Yep, I live in an unfinished renovation. Been going for 8 years now. Don't expect it to be finished any time soon. Monkey Man is the one who's done almost all the work on this house. But progress started with a bang and then slowed to a stop when second little monkey came along and made our lives way too busy. I'm waiting for an out of the blue financial windfall so we can pay someone to finish us off. Until then, I have to make do with lovely flesh-eating distractions.

The kitchen windowsill - see unpainted.

Things that Go Bump in the Night, Grey Water and A Bit of Trumpet Blowing.

2011-03-31T15:02:00.000+11:00

The other night I fell out of bed. I'm not talking a little stagger here, I'm talking complete roll, smack, bang, thump to the floor, hitting my head on the side table in the process. And I was sober. Twenty four hours later I was wondering why my back hurt so much and it was hard to breathe. It was a big bang. So I spent lots of the other day hunched over like an old lady and moaning. Relief came when I could find a comfy position in bed with the hot water bottle or in the bath.

Yep, I confess to still having baths despite the fact that I know them to be a dreadful waste of water. I didn't just hobble to the bath after my bed-falling escapade, I admit that I do quite often jump in the bath. I have managed to ease my conscience a little by ensuring that it is never a solo experience. I only ever share with the Monkey Boys in their evening bath. I have to fight them for leg space and fight their lego figurines for elbow space but I still enjoy it. I've eased my conscience a little more by getting Monkey Man to organise a grey water system. It took us a while to figure out a strong enough pump but now we have one that we simply pop in the water at the end and hook up to the hose out the bathroom window and onto our garden. It did wonders a couple of Summers ago for our fruit trees. If you're thinking of doing the same a warning that it's not recommended to put grey water onto veggies and herbs. And you do need to be careful about what you wash with when you use grey water. We use this.

Bath pump with lego props

I also really do love to attempt a complete tune out by reading in the bath (not an easy task when Little Monkeys are playing Star Wars lego battles at your elbow but I manage). Unfortunately, I can't read books that I've borrowed from friends in the bath. Especially not borrowed books from my friend Ms. M. who leaves a book in a perfect state when finished - not a crease, fold, stain or crumb in it. My books end up wrinkled and torn from bath water. Lately, I've been reading ebooks on my ipad. But you can't take a computer to the bath. So mostly I read magazines. We don't subscribe to magazines apart from ReNew (Alternative Technology Association mag) and that doesn't come out often enough to satisfy my bathing and reading requirements. I will read anything I can get my hands on - the supplements from the weekend papers, the school newsletter...I've even been known to read the RACV magazine (roadside assistance insurance). Oh, and when I'm really desperate or just up for some entertainment I'll read the crazy tiny text all over Dr Brommer's castille soap bottle. But the other night (and here comes the blowing of my own trumpet bit) I was thoroughly entertained by reading Grassroots magazine in the bath. Not just because it was filled with interesting stuff about gardening and cheese making and sustainable houses but also because I'd been asked to write an article for it! And there I was in a pic with the monkeys and several teeny chicks along with the article all about how we hatched the chicks in an incubator. We were all very chuffed. Luckily GrassRoots are sending me my own copy (I couldn't wait and purchased my own at the newsagent) because I'll need an un-wrinkled copy for the Monkeys to take along to show and tell.

So if you like to read about self-sufficiency, I recommend you take a look at this magazine. Because although you can find this stuff on blogs, you can't take a blog to the bath.

And my Name is...

2011-03-28T11:59:00.000+11:00

Indie

A very big thank you to everyone who commented with name suggestions for our last un-named chook. I put all the recommendations to the vote with the Monkeys last night and we made a short-list. Littlest Monkey was particularly keen on ElsieMay's suggestion of "Rock Star". Monkey Man liked Fiona's contribution of Xena. I like crazy names and p3chandan's "Chucky Chicky" appealed. But in the end a consensus was reached with Phoebe's suggestion of "Indie" (short for independent). I tried it out on her this morning while attempting to take her photo. She did jump about at the call of her name which I am interpreting as a positive sign that she likes it. She is prone to jump and run about at any little movement or noise but I am blindly optimistic that she will grow to love and come to me and that jumping at her name is the first step.

The chooks have been in my bad books these last few days. It's not entirely their fault. In fact it's not really their fault at all - they were just doing what comes naturally. They saw lovely fresh, green seedlings in the new veggie beds that used to be theirs to roam about all over freely. And I'd rather foolishly and lazily draped a temporary bit of wire between the shed and the trampoline. And the gaps in the wire were way too big. I did know this, but they're not usually very adventurous and there's so much grass for them to get through on their own side of the fence (check out the pic below) that I didn't think they'd bother. But the gaps were rather big. Big enough for a silkie chicken to simply step through.

So that's what they did on Friday morning.

And now every single one of my silverbeet seedlings and three quarters of my brassicas seedlings are gone. Completely. Luckily I caught them before they munched the last few broccoli bits and luckily the garlic has not yet sprouted. But now I have to start all over. I'm consoling myself with the knowledge that there are still quite a few white cabbage moths about and waiting a bit longer before seedlings go in is probably a good idea. I'd attempted Hazel's idea of draping a netting over the brassicas but didn't have a veil or curtain big enough. So they would probably have been eaten by caterpillars if not naughty chooks anyway.